Runaway Summer
by IWriteFandomStuff
Summary: Summer Smith was sick of being the problem in her house, so she ran away, and she made sure she couldn't return. But where she ends up puts her life in danger, and it doesn't seem like there's any hope. Can anyone find her and bring her home? Written because there's not enough Summer adventures in the show. Rated for language and other implied stuff.
1. Escape

She didn't know how long she'd been sitting there in the living room listening to the screaming coming from the kitchen, but she knew it was a long time. Summer Smith sat there on the couch, the text she'd been in the middle of typing long forgotten as her parents fought with each other yet again. The same argument they'd hashed out for as far back as she could remember; she felt like she could recite this fight by now.

"Well I'm sorry that I apparently can't make you happy, Beth!" her dad shouted.

"No, Jerry, forgive me, for being the only one here supporting a family of FIVE," Beth shot back, sarcasm as strong as her father's. "I'm sorry I'm the only one with a job here who's completely incapable of working as a surgeon and paying for your incompetent ass."

Summer knew the exact stages the argument would play through. Next would be the part where they fought about Beth being valid as a horse surgeon. That would be followed by where Rick had no business living with them and 'corrupting' their children. Then would come her least favorite part; the part where the existence of the children in the first place was brought up.

Well, not so much both of them; Morty was, for the most part, a completely intentional pregnancy. It was her existence that was the mistake that shouldn't have happened. It was Summer that made them hate each other.

She wished Rick was there to walk in nonchalant and throw some wise comment about how they either needed to shut up or divorce already. But she knew that couldn't happen this time; Rick and Morty had left on some mission hours ago, and Grandpa Rick had said it could take all night. He promised Beth they'd be back before breakfast, and off he rushed with Morty into the garage to open a portal.

Summer, knowing the argument would be unavoidable at that point, ran in behind them, just in time to see Rick punching in the combination to his safe where the portal gun was kept. 101381. Beth's birthday. For a complete asshole douche 90 percent of the time, they knew Grandpa Rick did care. It was just way deep down and hard to find if you weren't looking for it every single moment.

"Grandpa Rick, can I come with you guys?" she had asked, hopeful to escape.

"Uh, sorry, Summer," Rick replied, not looking at her while he focused on punching in the coordinates on his portal gun. "This—this is a business trip, and I don't have time to drag along a teenage girl because she's bored and h—h—has nothing better to do on a Friday night."

Summer stood there, cold as she watched Rick and Morty jump through the portal he had opened. It closed before she could hear her brother on the other side telling Rick he shouldn't be an asshole to his sister like that.

However long ago that had been, she didn't know. All she knew was that she felt trapped in a home where she didn't feel wanted; not by her parents, not by her grandfather and not by her brother.

"WELL THE ONLY REASON WE'RE EVEN HERE IS BECAUSE YOU THOUGHT THAT FLAT TIRE WAS A SIGN WE SHOULDN'T GET THE ABORTION, AND I WAS STUPID ENOUGH TO LISTEN!" Beth screamed.

Crying wasn't something Summer enjoyed doing when there were people too close, as in, right in the next room close. So she pressed her lips together and bolted up the stairs, locking her bedroom door behind her as she threw herself onto her bed. Idly, she realized she'd left her phone on the sofa, but she didn't care enough to retrieve it; a thought she'd had for the first time in her life.

But it didn't matter; she was beyond exhausted mentally and emotionally, and she couldn't figure out why she was still there. She'd forced herself to stay for years because she knew she was the real reason her parents stayed together, but now, it seemed like they'd be happier apart. And if she was the glue keeping this fuckfest going, she'd remove the problem: herself.

As a 17-year-old, she didn't know just how far away she could get on her own; probably a few miles out of town was her best guess before some cops would find her and drag her back home. Had she managed to make it far away, Rick would probably appear and bring her back himself because Beth would ask him to.

And there was her problem; she had to get _far_ away. So far that not even Grandpa Rick could follow and/or find her. And she knew there was only one way to do that.

Eventually the yelling died down. Underneath her door, Summer saw lights turn out and darkness settled upon the house as Beth and Jerry called it quits for the night and probably went to the same bed, just to prove to the other that they wouldn't back down or lose the argument.

There were points when Summer tried to fall asleep, but she couldn't. She was restless and jumpy and the need to get out was felt suffocating. So she lied in the dark and the silence, trying to figure out a game plan, but seeing as she didn't know where she'd end up, it would be pointless.

It was around 3:30 a.m. when she heard Rick and Morty trudging up the stairs, back from whatever mission they'd embarked on.

"Geez, Rick, you know, you could have spent less time at that bar on the way home," Morty yawned.

"Well, you—you—you know, Morty, one doesn't always—doesn't always get to go to the Black Hole Bar in the Calgon Galaxy," Rick slurred. "It's a rare opportunity, Morty. You gotta—gotta, you know, go when you're there, Morty. The—the stardust whiskey is made with real bits of stars, you know."

"Keep it down, Rick," Morty hushed him. "You're gonna wake everyone up. I'm going to bed, goodnight."

Summer waited. She heard one door click closed – Morty's bedroom – followed by a second one further down the hall – Rick's. Her heart was pounding; she didn't know what to do at this point, anxiety taking over. Should she pack? Should she leave a note saying she was going away and don't come looking for her? She didn't know how to do this sort of thing. The only thing she knew was that she absolutely had to. She couldn't stay where she was the reason everyone was miserable.

She opted not to take anything. She didn't want anything to remind her of what she left behind.

After five minutes, she knew she'd be in the clear. Rick's alcohol would surely knock him out and Morty was always exhausted enough to fall asleep quickly. As quietly as she could, she crept down the hall and descended the stairs, all the way to Rick's garage.

A pause as her hand touched the doorknob separating her from Rick's workshop; could she really do this? Should she really do this? Her inner-Rick pegged her as an over-emotional teenager who was overreacting, and that she should be used to the same hashed out argument she's heard all her life. Her inner-Morty was telling her he same speech the real Morty had told her a while ago.

 _"Nobody exists on purpose, nobody belongs anywhere, everybody's gonna die."  
_  
Tears began to sting her eyes again as she remembered those words, and she knew they were exactly why she needed to leave. So without a second thought, she slipped herself inside the garage and locked the door behind her, her eyes falling immediately on the safe as soon as she flicked the lights on. It was eerie being in the garage alone; she was never in here without her grandfather or her brother, and she felt rather small, seeing things on the shelf and knowing only one person in existence knew what they were capable of and how they worked.

She didn't like feeling so small, so Summer pushed herself as fast as she could go, because she knew if she stopped to think about it, she might not have been able to go through with it. Her fingers ran swiftly along the keypad on Rick's safe as she punched in the code: 101381. With a green flashing light and a clicking noise, she ripped open the safe.

Small test tubes filled with neon-glowing substances, file folders full of loose papers with who knows what secrets on them and numerous currencies were just some of the things stashed within Rick's safe. Part of her was curious and wanted to sift through it all; to try to piece together Rick's mysterious 20-year absence from her family's lives, which she was convinced was all sitting before her. The better part of her screamed to keep moving before she got caught.

There, on the top shelf, resting on what appeared to be some sort of charger, was Rick's most prized possession: his portal gun.

Adrenaline took over as Summer ripped it off of its charger and carefully closed the safe, making sure it locked and that nothing else was out of place. Standing up straight, she analyzed the device in her shaking and eager hands. She'd seen Rick use it a million times, but honestly, she had no idea how to use it herself.

She identified the trigger quickly enough, and tried to read the coordinates displayed on the tiny screen. She gave up quickly enough, though, determining she would never understand where the location was and that it didn't really matter in the end. So she took a deep breath, aimed for the garage door, and blasted a portal to wherever right in front of her. The blinding green light subdued, and she stared at the hole that was her future right before her.

It took all of her will power in the moment, but she took the short distance step by step until she was no longer in C-137.

Summer found herself in the middle of nowhere, actually. It looked like earth, save for the oddly colored/shaped trees and the discolored red sky. She had no idea where she was, but she could see some kind of formation ahead of her; a town, perhaps. It was as good as it was going to get, and she had to stop second guessing herself.

So she made one final rash, quick decision to make sure she was certain.

Summer raised the portal gun up over her head, and threw it down on the ground, watching it shatter. She stepped on the already-broken device a few extra times, just for good measure.

And she walked towards that town without looking back, tears unknowingly sliding down her face.


	2. Caught in the Act

There were things Rick Sanchez loved completely and things he hated with his entire being at the same time. He loved the smooth taste of Stardust Whiskey, and how it could give even the nastiest alcoholics the best buzz. He hated the horrid hangover it produced within its drinker hours later.

He loved the taste of Beth's breakfasts – especially the way she could cook the eggs just the way he liked them – but he hated knowing getting it this morning would mean getting out of bed and dealing with taxing, social practices as the Smith family began their day.

So Rick had a choice: he could skip breakfast in favor of trying to sleep off the hangover, or he could not waste the day's potential, and get eggs, maybe even pancakes if he was lucky.

If it was Saturday, he would be guaranteed pancakes; Beth made pancakes every Saturday.

Rick lazily rolled over, trying not to move his head too much.

"Computer, what day is today?" he mumbled. "And keep your response low, because I'm in the middle of hangover hell right now and I don't want have to break you again because you made my headache worse."

"Today's date is…Saturday," the computer confirmed, along with popping out three Aspirin and a small glass of water for Rick.

He huffed, forced himself to sit up, grabbed the medicine and water and gulped them down.

"Fucking pancakes," he muttered, slipping on his lab coat over his faithful blue shirt and making his way downstairs for the day.

Rick sighed in relief having made it all the way to his chair without any interactions. Jerry didn't bother to greet him good morning from behind his newspaper, and Morty looked like he had passed out on the table. He didn't blame the kid, either; they'd gotten back pretty late, and Rick would be lying if he said he didn't want the extra hours of sleep as well. Rick poured himself some coffee, and then added a few shots of whiskey from his flask before taking his first sip.

Beth eventually emerged from the kitchen, arms full of plates of food. There were the pancakes and eggs; his glorious reward for his hard trek down the stairs.

"Good morning dad," she greeted as she gently placed his plates in front of him.

"Morning, sweetie," he replied, eyeing the syrup before Morty would get to it.

He winced when he heard a loud clang noise beside him; Beth practically dropped Jerry's plate before him. Rick looked up to see both Jerry and her glaring at one another.

Great, the same dumb fucking fight yet again. Here they go.

But neither of them broke into it. They just silently fumed as Beth placed Morty's plate before him and took her own place at the table.

"Morty, sweetie, no sleeping at the table," she said calmly; a tone that completely betrayed her facial expression.

"S—s—sorry, mom," Morty sniffled as he lifted his head into his hands and pretended to look awake. "Hey, Rick? Pass the syrup—when you're done, please."

"Huh? Oh, yeah, whatever, Morty," Rick responded, looking back and fourth between the Beth and Jerry, waiting.

It was only when Morty started coughing – aggravatingly loud – that Rick took his attention off of his daughter and son-in-law, and noticed how sickly his grandson looked.

He was pale; deep bags under his puffy red eyes making him look completely disinterested in the scene around him. Shit. Morty probably got sick last night.

"Hey, buddy, you doing okay there?" Jerry asked, finally putting his paper down.

"Yeah, uh huh–doin' great, dad," Morty sniffled, then coughed again.

The three continued to stare at Morty, who kept his full attention on his plate before him. Morty poked at his food, knowing if he ate any of it, he'd puke it all up with the way he was starting to feel. When he broke into another coughing fit, Beth stood up and moved towards him.

"Morty, you're burning up!" Beth said as she removed her hand from his forehead.

"Are you getting sick, son?" Jerry asked, standing to help Beth.

"I guess I am," Morty finally admitted.

"And just where in the galaxy did Rick take you last night to get you sick?" Jerry accused, while Rick just rolled his eyes in response.

"Not my fault you passed your shitty immune system down to my grandson, apparently, Jerry."

Jerry opened his mouth to respond, by Morty's next coughing fit shut him up, which Rick was thankful for. The two parents helped walk Morty upstairs and put him back to bed, their fight temporarily forgotten in concern for their son's health.

It was when he was alone in the room when Rick realized Summer hadn't been present, but it didn't bother him all that much. She was probably still sleeping, like teenagers did, or doing other teenager stuff. Rick didn't dwell on it; he knew Morty had probably caught a space cold on the ice moon they visited last night, and he knew he'd have to waste time making a medicine, because earth medicine would take entirely too long to fix Morty's sickness. Rick had errands to run, so he needed his sidekick to go off while he dealt with his slowly subsiding headache.

Instead of waiting for them to come back, Rick retreated to his makeshift lab, already mixing chemicals in his head. When he'd first arrived at the door, he tried to open it, but to his surprise, it was locked.

"Huh," Rick wiped the drool off his lip as he pulled out the key for the door; he didn't remember locking it.

Once the door clicked open, he was also surprised to see the lights were already on, which he didn't think he left them on after they'd gotten back last night. He must have been blacked out, because man, that Stardust Whiskey will do that for ya, and then some.

He took a swig from his flask as he bent down to his safe, knowing he'd have to make a quick trip to the Plaagin System for some ingredients.

Compiling the list of ingredients in his head, Rick punched in the code to unlock the vault he kept his most important belongings.

Rick didn't know if it was just a symptom of his hangover, but his blood turned to ice when he didn't see his portal gun in the safe, right where he left it after last night's escapade. It was missing from the spot where it always was supposed to be if Rick wasn't holding it. And this was one of those rare, impossible moments, when Rick felt true fear.

"What the fuck?" Rick said aloud.

He shook his head, trying to dispel the anxiety building up within. He was practically panicking, ruling out every possibility his mind brought up. He wouldn't have misplaced it, no matter how drunk he was, as he had been far worse in the past and the gun always made it back to its safe spot. He didn't leave it behind, because there's no way he and Morty could have gotten home last night without it. And he wouldn't have given it to Morty, because that would have just been fucking stupid.

There was only one other possibility Rick's mind could see, and it wasn't good; someone had taken the portal gun.

Anything could happen if his portal gun fell into the wrong hands. If another Rick had gotten it, a Rick more evil than him that hadn't had one before, unspeakable things could happen. And thankfully, he had a backup plan incase that happened; he would to leave again.

If he knew the other Ricks like he thought he did, because he was a Rick, he would only be after one target: himself. But given that there were Ricks more evil than him, and he didn't know what he was dealing with, he couldn't stay and risk his family's safety. He might not have even been dealing with another Rick at all! Tons of life forms across the multiverse knew about his portal gun. So he'd lead whatever could potentially be after him away. And then he'd take care of whatever was after him, and he would come back again.

He'd come back for Beth, because he couldn't leave her again; not after seeing just how bad it had fucked her up in the first place. He'd come back for Morty, because although he'd never openly admit it to anyone, he grew to love the little bastard so damn much, and the Rickest Rick needed the Mortiest Morty for any and every adventure. He'd come back for Summer, who he was still trying to figure out; whether he respected her or thought she was just another dumb teenager, he couldn't tell, because she'd definitely surprised him a few times. He wouldn't come back for Jerry, though. No matter how disgustingly sentimental he could be about his family, he still hated his son-in-law. That wouldn't change probably ever.

But before he could make the promise that he'd return, he needed to know what the threat actually was; whom he was dealing with, so he could set a plan up.

He shut the safe and pulled his laptop in front of him, frantically typing and clicking. He pulled up the security camera software that he'd installed right when he moved back into the house. He'd placed a camera in every room, just incase any emergency, like the one he was facing, were to occur. Rick knew there were countless people after him, and he was always anticipating the day one was dumb enough to show up to his home.

And yet, here apparently was that day, and Rick was horrendously unprepared; a feeling he'd felt very few times throughout his life.

Rick flipped through every room in the house, looking for anything out of the ordinary from the previous night. He saw Morty and himself jump into the portal as they began their quest. He saw Summer looking dazed in the living room for two hours before she bolted up the stairs. He saw Jerry and his daughter arguing yet again in the kitchen. But everything seemed in place. It didn't make sense.

He fast-forwarded through the garage-view camera, up until the point he and Morty had returned. Morty had been pulling him through the portal, Rick swaying and swinging the portal gun in his hand while slurring profanities the whole time. But he saw himself open the safe and place the portal gun where it belonged, same as every night and every post-adventure.

There were only two people in the whole world who knew the safe's key-code besides Rick; Summer and Morty.

During the return-trip from one adventure, he had told them how to get into the safe. Rick couldn't remember which time specifically, but some ass-hat had made threats against him and promised he'd bring some army to earth and wipe out everyone he cared about and yadda yadda yadda. A threat Rick didn't care about, but nonetheless took seriously, because when he thought about it, it was all too much a possibility. Lots of people were after him, and he knew some would go to any lengths to get him.

So he had told his grandchildren the safe's password, but no one else. One, because he trusted them: Summer had proved herself to be competent, and he was closer with Morty than anyone else in his life and two because they were really the only ones who even knew the threat existed. Jerry would bitch like hell if he knew and Beth wouldn't take it too well, either no matter how much she wanted her father to stay in her life for good, he assumed.

But he had also stressed the severity of opening that safe without the need to. He told them that if he ever caught them in there without his permission, he would probably kill them and replace them with dimensional counterparts. And above that, he told them they could only be allowed in there if shit was absolutely hitting every fan on the planet, and they needed the portal gun to get themselves and Beth out of there because he wasn't around for whatever reason. Jerry…well, he didn't really care too much what Jerry did.

So according to the video, he had placed the portal gun in the correct place like he thought he had. He even watched himself and Morty go up to their respective bedrooms and turn in for the night. Now all he had to do was fast-forward until he saw who broke into the garage and stole it.

He stared at the screen intensely, not knowing what to expect. Obviously they had to be deranged to risk getting so close to Rick, smart to know how to get into Rick's safe, but also quiet and skilled. His curiosity and anxiety made it impossible to pull a character to fit that description, though. So he just watched and waited.

His heart practically stopped when he saw the shadow of the door to his garage open slowly, a figure he couldn't make out entirely in the dark creep in. Once he heard the door click locked, he knew this was who he was looking for. And he raised an eyebrow, because judging from the silhouette of this thief, who ever this was seemed skinny and way too unsure of themselves to be a real threat.

When the lights turned on in the video feed, he didn't believe his eyes.

Summer. Fucking Summer.

Fucking Summer Jordan Smith.

She was there, crouched down in front of _his_ safe and punching in _his_ number code to unlock _his_ stuff. Rick stared at the screen in shocked disbelief as he watched his own granddaughter examining the portal gun in her hands, trying to figure out how to use it for herself.

"What the fucking fuck, Summer?!" Rick hissed, seething, as his face drew closer and closer to the monitor.

He felt his shocked expression melt into a scowl as he watched his granddaughter unlock the safe with shaky hands, and pause. She suddenly ripped take the portal gun out of its place and shot up. Rick could tell she was bouncing with nervous energy as she looked at the portal gun for a few moments before launching a portal and running through it.

That was it; the portal closed after she was gone.

On one hand, Rick was relieved that it wasn't one of his enemies that had gotten his portal gun. One the other hand, he was beyond pissed off that Summer would do something so stupid, and he knew he would probably have to go get her, as she had little to no experience with dimension hopping and probably could get back.

He minimized the video feeds and pulled up his tracking software. When he first made his portal gun, Rick installed a tracking chip in it, just incase he needed to find it.

"Computer, find my p—portal gun," he said while leaning back in his chair.

Rick watched lazily as the loading screen informed him it was looking for a signal and location. He took his flask back out and chugged the rest of its contents, knowing he'd need to refill it before making this retrieval trip. Summer was going to get one hell of a talking to when he got to her, and he'd need all the alcohol in the house and more for that upcoming discussion.

Three beeps sounded off of his computer, which was not a good thing. It never needed to be more than one beep.

Rick analyzed the warning screen, a weird feeling spreading in his chest when the words, "Cannot locate signal" flashed before him.

That meant one of two things. Either the portal gun's battery was dead, or it was broken, both of which led to one conclusion: Summer, wherever she was, was stuck there.

He gritted his teeth and began furiously typing commands on his computer again; he didn't ask for this much stress to start his day. He knew he should have stayed in bed until his hangover subsided…

"Computer, what were the last coordinates the portal gun sent before it went offline?" Rick demanded.

The loading screen returned, though it brought up information much faster. Rick read over the coordinates.

 **C-137 Sanchez, Rick**  
 **Portal Gun C031**  
 **Last located in: Dimension C-137 … _  
_** _  
_Rick breathed a sigh of relief. _Good, she didn't jump dimensions; just went to a different part of this one. I can pick her up in the ship._

But the relief faded as he read the rest.

 **System OML, Planet Zenoa, Coordinates -0.2934, +5.3940**

 _Fuck._

Zenoa was a planet Rick was all too familiar with. It was a planet known for harboring countless outlaws and criminals. It was outside of any space government's jurisdiction lines, and because of that, he'd done a lot of weapons-dealing business there in the past. His latest trip was just days before, so that must have been how Summer ended up there; she probably pulled up coordinates from the recent history search on his portal gun before she'd activated it.

Zenoa was an ideal place for any murder or rapist to reside, but not so ideal for a clueless teenage girl to stumble into for whatever reason.

Just what had Summer been thinking? She wasn't stupid by any means; Rick knew this. So what prompted her to go on a solo trip to one of the most dangerous parts of the known galaxies?

He huffed as he shut his computer, taking it under his arm and fumbling to get the keys to his ship out of his pocket.

There were three timid knocks on the door that drew his attention. He scowled at the door.

"What?" he barked.

The door opened slowly to reveal Beth, looking a little taken aback by the bitterness in his tone.

"Hey, dad," she began quietly.

"Kinda really busy right now, sweetie," he tried a bit softer, unlocking his ship and throwing his computer on the passenger seat. "If this is about Morty, I'm going to get his some medicine right now."

Beth bit her lip and nodded.

"Thanks, dad," she said. "But, um…have you seen Summer, anywhere? Jerry checked her room and she wasn't there, and she didn't say she was going anywhere to us…"

Rick winced. He was hoping he could have escaped before anyone but him noticed Summer's absence.

Now that he knew where she was, he didn't have any time to waste in going to get her; Zenoa was 800 million light years away, and it was going to take Rick a few hours to get there in his ship. He just hoped Summer wasn't dumb enough to die until he got there to save her ass. And he didn't want to tell his daughter that her child was possibly in serious danger; he'd hurt her enough in his lifetime already.

"No idea where Summer is," Rick lied flatly. "Maybe she went to the mall or slept at a friend's house? I'm sure she's fine. I have to go if I want to get Morty this cold stuff before he starts puking purple acid, Beth. That's gonna stain anything it touches, and I'm sure you don't want that."

Beth's eyes widened a little, and she looked back into the house.

"Okay," she said, stepping backwards. "Have a safe trip, dad. See you in a bit."

She shut the door behind her, and Rick let out a breath. He was glad there was no more questions, because he really didn't want to lie to Beth again. And fuck Summer for making him do that. And for making him have to take this trip in the first place.

Rick clicked the garage door opener inside his ship. Once he was clear, he took off faster than he ever had. His anger forced his foot to press the gas petal as far as it could go, or maybe it was his concern. He didn't really care.

All he knew was he had to get to Summer before something fucking awful could happen.

* * *

 **Author's notes:**

\- I made Summer's middle name.  
\- The next Rick chapter, whenever it gets done, will reference canon and non-canon.


	3. Zenoa

Throughout her life, Summer knew she had made a few bad choices here and there.

When she was four, she stole a candy bar from a store her mother had brought her to. When she turned 11, she looked at all of her birthday presents before her mother could wrap them. When she got her first phone at 13, she bluntly went over the data limit just to show off to her friends that she had a phone. When she was 15, she was drinking one night she went to Toby Matthew's party without her parents' permission. Last year, she shouldn't have cheated on that one test once because she partied and wanted to skip studying because that was what the cool kids did.

But by far, at age 17, stealing a portal gun and jumping ship to come to this place was by far the worst thing she'd ever done.

After an extremely exhausting hike, she'd made it into the town she'd saw on the horizon.

The relief, however, didn't last long, and it didn't take her long to get the general theme of this town. Rundown looking buildings and dusty roads greeted her when she'd first arrived. She couldn't tell the exact time of day, because with the sky so red and no sun, it seemed like it was a dark planet constantly. Diverse, mean and intimidating aliens surrounded her as she awkward shuffled through the streets, trying to find something she could make sense of. Some stared at her, others glared. She didn't exactly feel welcome, but she wouldn't let it show. Not when her pride had already been drastically reduced as she had run away from home because she couldn't handle an argument.

She saw some aliens holding up pictures of their own mug shots – their own wanted posters, she assumed – proudly, and laughing with others as the lists of words beneath them.

So this was where she trapped herself: a criminal alien world. Fantastic.

Summer could have kicked herself for destroying the portal gun so quickly. She should have hopped a few dimensions before settling; picked one she liked.

But what was done was done, and she knew that.

She did her best to ignore the whispers in languages she'd never know as she passed the creatures through the streets. All she wanted was to get somewhere no one would keep analyzing her like she would make a good meal.

She turned a corner and breathed a sigh of relief as she'd found herself a mostly empty street, and saw what she assumed to be a bench.

Plopping down and taking a long breath, she tried to think about all the things she could do here. She didn't see anything that she even remotely understood; the signs and buildings and people all spoke different languages. So she assumed she'd honestly just starve to death before she could try to make something of a life here, not that she'd really want to. And if she could find some kind of way to survive, she'd probably get eaten by one or more of the things surrounding her.

It seemed kind of hopeless, and she slowly came to the conclusion that she might have signed a death wish by coming here. And honestly, that prospect didn't bother her as much as it should have. She knew she should care; be more concerned, but honestly, what was the point? There really wasn't one.

So she sat there for a while, just watching for changes in the sky, lost in her thoughts. She hoped to see stars or clouds or anything, but the sky just remained its dark, blood red color for however long she looked at it. Summer didn't notice the figure watching her from a short distance away. He kept his eyes on her, totally bewildered.

Minutes later, when she felt the bench shake beneath her, she looked to her side to see a tall but skinny purple alien had taken a seat next to her. She tried not to stare, but she found herself looking all over this stranger, analyzing him.

This stranger, aside from the purple tinted skin, looked somewhat human. He had two arms and two legs. He was average height. He also had two eyes, albeit yellow with only black pupils, a normal-looking nose, a somewhat larger mouth…no hair, four ears. He didn't look too harmful, but his face was long, nose-less and filled with curiosity.

"Human?" he asked her, his voice completely electronic.

She blinked a few times, confused, but nodded an affirmative.

"Language?" he asked again.

"Uh, English…" Summer said slowly.

With that, the alien looked up and twisted a knob on some kind of collar he was wearing. Summer waited, not knowing what was going on.

A few clicks later and the alien looked back down at her.

"Strange seeing a human here," he smirked somewhat; a voice completely different was now speaking fluent English to her. "We don't see too many of your kind in this part of the cosmos."

Summer started a little bit at the sudden change.

"Oh, uh, yeah," she stammered, feeling awkward. "I guess not; it is kinda far from earth and all."

She slumped back down and looked forward, not really knowing what else to do, or what this stranger wanted, exactly.

"My name is Calgone," he said. "What's yours?"

"Summer," she replied. "Did you need something, exactly? I mean I don't get why you're talking to me here."

Calgone looked over her again without her noticing as she continued to focus on the sky. She didn't want to make eye contact with him, because something felt off about this guy. Or maybe it was just the general vibe on this planet and its residents. She couldn't tell; she just knew she had an odd feeling in the pit of her stomach.

"You just look a little lost is all, I figured I could try to help you out," he smiled sincerely, scooting just a little bit closer to her.

She didn't miss the movement. Summer looked back to him, slightly suspicious. Although she appreciated the sentiment, she still didn't exactly trust it. But she was curious as to what kind of help he could have been offering.

She still hadn't taken any notice of the figure watching her interact with this alien from across the street.

"I'll figure it out," she said evenly, hoping he could understand she didn't want anything from him.

"I doubt you can read Flengblorb, which is all you'll find around here," he said right on back, condescending and still smiling. "Or can speak any language other than one found on your planet. So honestly, I think you'd be better off just trusting me here, sweetheart."

He slid towards her again, making it more obvious this time. Summer's face contorted into a glare; who was he to speak to her like that?

"Look," she said, not bothering to hide the displeasure in her voice. "I appreciate it, but I made it this far without any help, and I'd like it to stay that way. It's why I came here in the first place."

Calgone's smile faded slightly, and she swore she could see a twinge of frustration in his eyes. But she held her ground; she wouldn't back down from a creep like this. She would prove to everyone and herself that she was more than capable of making it on her own.

"I'm trying to be nice here," the frustration was more evident in his voice than on his face, and Summer didn't miss it. "There's a tavern right through that alley down there. I can take you there and get you something to eat or drink."

"I'm fine," Summer lied. "I'm okay, I don't' need anything."

In truth, she did want some food or even some water. She'd been wandering for hours before getting here, and although resting on this bench helped, it didn't quell the growing discomfort in her stomach. But she knew with absolute certainty at this point she shouldn't go anywhere with this guy. Something seemed off with him when he first approached, and now her body was triggering its fight or flight instincts. Her fingers twitched and she sat on them, trying not to show her growing discomfort.

She heard Calgone exhale and stand up.

"Your loss I guess," Calgone huffed, finally starting to walk away.

Summer exhaled, relieved that the whole strange social exchange was over. She rested her back against the back of the bench and closed her eyes.

The conversation with Calgone did raise some questions in her mind; where would she go? What could see eat or drink? What could she do if she couldn't communicate with, uh, people here if she had no idea how to speak her language?

Like she had resolved earlier, she was essentially screwed. Maybe she could try to find that tavern Calgone had told her was just a short walk–

Instantly, she was aware of a small pain in her neck, similar to a mosquito bite. She swatted at the spot, only to be met with a hand pinning it down on to the bench.

Summer jerked her hand back, standing up and spinning around. She came face-to-face…Cal…Cal– wait, what was his name again?

Calgone watched with a satisfied grin as his serum took effect almost instantly, Summer swaying slightly and trying to make sense of things that were slowly going out of focus for her.

"What this fu–" she tried to say, but her lips went numb before she could finish.

Everything was switching between blurry and clear. There was a weird ringing in the back of her ears that was steadily growing louder. Suddenly, the ground was rushing up to her, and she closed her eyes to brace for the impact. It never came.

Calgone grabbed her, tentacles coming out of his sides. Summer could barely make them out, and she could barely register the pain that was coming from being gripped so hard. The only thing she was 100 percent certain of was that she wasn't on the ground anymore, but suspended in the air…being dragged away? Maybe? Maybe not?

Calgone's form had completely changed without Summer's ability to comprehend what was going on. His arms and legs were gone, replaced by countless tentacles. His mouth had expanded to a huge size, and razor sharp sets of teeth popped out, drool spilling out of his lips.

"I like the ones who fight me," he hissed to Summer in her ear, not that she could understand anything anymore; the ringing in he ears was getting too loud. "They usually taste better."

Summer barely understood him. She was just trying to breathe, which was becoming just as difficult as thinking clearly.

He slipped into the alleyway, making sure no one could see him as he went. All Summer could see was blurry shapes and colors. Nothing made sense anymore, not even the thoughts in her head. Calgon dropped her on the ground before him, examining his prize. As a result, Summer's body tumbled and rolled a bit, gaining a few cuts and bruises, not that she could feel them, but Calgone loved the site of her blood as it leaked out.

He decided he was done wasting time; he hadn't eaten a human – a female, no less – in a long time and he was ready to remember the taste. He lowered himself down to her, mouth open and ready.

But instead of human meat, he was met with a laser shooting straight through his mouth and out the back of his head. He stumbled back, losing the feeling in his body.

"Wha–" before he could finish his question, another blast hit him straight between the eyes, and his head partially exploded.

He fell backwards, dead.

Summer was hyperventilating on the ground; she had no sense of reality anymore. Breathing was becoming way too difficult and she couldn't tell if she was going to be able to keep breathing, darkness creeping into her vision.

The figure watching her earlier emerged from his hiding place, and ran up towards her body on the ground.

"Stupid motherfucker," he spat on Calgone's body, then turned his attention to the poisoned girl on the ground.

He wasted no time in falling to his knees next to her, his fingers on her neck searching for a pulse. He observed her eyes, large and unfocused, and her breathing, erratic and out of control.

"Shit, shit, shit…" he hissed. "Summer, you better not fucking die on me. Not like this."

He picked her up, bridal style, and started darting away from the scene, paying no more mind to the dead alien he left behind in that alley.

Summer's mind was swimming; she didn't know what was happening, but she did know she wasn't in the same situation she was in moments before. Through her ragged breathing, she recognized something: a scent.

The scent of whiskey permeated through her nose, and she had her last moment of clarity before she passed out.

Rick Sanchez looked down and grunted as he noticed Summer had finally passed out in his arms.

"Fuck," he seethed, pushing himself to run faster.


	4. Reflections

**Author's notes:  
** \- This section is gonna go two ways: I'm going to reference actual canon at some points, and other points, it'll be non canon. You get this idea; some stuff happened, other stuff is made up.  
\- The line breaks indicate the beginning and/or end of a flashback. To make it more discernible, the flashbacks will also be in _italics_.  
\- Lots of flashybacky goodness in this chapter for sure. Bear with me; it's in the name of development.  
\- This is a long chapter, yo. Lots of feels to cover.

* * *

Zenoa was a _long_ ways away; Rick both knew and dreaded this fact.

It had to be far away; it had to be far enough to discourage anyone who wasn't hiding from serious punishment to want to go there, and it had to be outside of any and every galactic government's boarder lines. Even the Galactic Federation and the Gromflomite's reach didn't stretch that far. Rick could even recall a few periods of time when he, Bird Person and Squancy had stayed there during the rebellion, just to regroup and get their strength back before they'd return to the fighting.

Had he had his portal gun, it would have taken him all of a six second trip to get there, probably less. But the problem was he was very much without his favorite invention. So here he sat, flooring the gas pedal on his ship, trying to make the trip as quickly as possible.

Once he was outside of the Milky Way Galaxy, he set his ship to auto pilot.

"Ship, get me to the planet Zenoa as fast as possible," he ordered, reaching for his laptop in the passenger seat. "Use the coordinates from the portal gun's last known location."

A few lights on the dashboard blinked, and a red blinking dot appeared on the locked location on his ships mapping screen.

"Estimated time until arrival is: four hours," the ship responded.

Rick made a half-grunt-half-snarl noise as he ripped open his computer. Four hours wasn't long for a trip through the cosmos at all – anyone should be impressed the ship he built out of spare shit in the garage could take him 800 million light years in such a short period of time – but it was an eternity in the situation he was in. Summer would be lucky as hell if she'd even make it thirty minutes on Zenoa; four hours didn't even seem possible.

Or maybe even longer!

Rick strongly doubted she'd stayed in the same spot in the almost eight hours she'd already been there, and Rick deduced she'd probably discovered Poglix; the town in the distance he'd always done his business in. He'd always made sure to teleport a few miles out, just so no one would see him arrive and want to steal his portal gun.

His fingers glided over the computer's track pad and keys, pulling back up his security software. He was a man of science, in a never-ending quest to solve the mysteries of existence.

Today's mystery: why the fuck would Summer do something this stupid?

The video feed of Summer on the couch from the previous night pulled up, and Rick studied it carefully as it played. The look on her face wasn't one he normally saw Summer wear, at least not out in the open. He turned up the volume to try to hear something; to make sense of why Summer looked so God damn sad.

It clicked in his head almost instantly: the sounds of Jerry and Beth during their nightly screaming match played in the background as Summer sat there, absorbing the words. He pushed the living room video to the side and pulled up the one from the kitchen next to it, and played them side-by-side, audio turned up.

As expected, it was forever the same dialogue with these two. Beth and Jerry screamed about her being a doctor, because fuck you, Jerry, his daughter was a real doctor whose salary was pulling his ass around. They fought about him not having a job, because he was an idiot who thought, 'Hungry for Apples' would make it as a food campaign. And then came the twist; the new addition of the argument that had recently been added.

"Well the only reason we're even here is because you thought that flat tire was a sign we shouldn't get the abortion, and I was stupid enough to listen!"

That exact moment in the feed was what forced Summer up the stairs, locking herself in her room and hiding from the world. He didn't know what she'd done once she got in there; he'd never installed cameras in the bedrooms or bathrooms, because that would just be way too fucking creepy.

Rick rolled his eyes. Was this it? This couldn't be it. Seriously? No way.

* * *

She ran away because she'd heard her parents arguing? This was a scenario she'd lived through night after night for her entire life. Rick didn't understand what was so different this time.

 _He'd never intended for it to be a habit: to go back to his dimension's earth and check on his daughter from time to time._

 _But it had become a routine; every few months, Rick would pop into C-132 and check on how things were going for Beth. His ever-extending absence in her life made him wonder sometimes._

 _He'd made sure they'd never met face-to-face. He'd portal in a general range of her, and watch her from afar, because he was curious, and (though he'd deny it if someone asked) concerned for his daughter's well being._

 _While he was off on his travels, and had met other Ricks from other dimensions, they'd told him about their Beths. Every one he had met told him she'd gotten knocked up after her senior prom, but had aborted the baby or given her up for adoption, and then cut ties from the loser father. She'd even become a successful surgeon or an author or whatever else they had said._

 _And he was curious if his Beth had done the same. To his surprise, his Beth had the baby; a young girl she'd named Summer. To his further surprise, she'd also married the guy, Jerry, a friend from her high school days, pretty soon after._

 _So Rick made it a point to check in from time-to-time, just to see how she was. He never stayed long enough to get caught, though._

 _She hadn't known it, but he had even attended her graduation, proudly watching from the very back as she walked across the stage to get her diploma and begin her medical career. She'd been through so much to get to that point, and raising a kid throughout her years in veterinary school made it so much more of an accomplishment than all the other dipshits around her looking smug with their own diplomas._

 _And at one point – he didn't remember when, exactly – he'd gotten curious about the baby. The concept of him as a grandfather…he couldn't quite wrap his head around it. Maybe it was because he had always tried to detach himself after his marriage had gone bad, he didn't know._

 _Regardless, the baby existed in his reality, and to an extent, his life. He just had to know if she was like her mother, or if she'd taken after the asshole who'd pressured his daughter into prom sex after they shared a few beers and some shots of cheap tequila._

 _That was how he'd found himself in his daughter's home for the first time, after she and Jerry had fallen asleep._

 _It wasn't a bad place, he'd thought as he looked around the house silently that night, portal gun at the ready for a quick escape incase someone was to stir. Not the biggest house in the world, but not small by any means. Two story, four bedrooms, a three bathrooms, two living rooms, a dining room, and etc. She'd done well for herself, despite the awful husband she'd stuck herself with._

 _He chose to ignore the framed picture of himself, his former wife and a young Beth in the spare room as he crept along._

 _Eventually he found himself upstairs, looking down at a small child – his granddaughter – asleep in the crib. Her tiny mouth was slack with drool pooling out of it, and he had to chuckle to himself; just like grandpa, he'd thought._

 _He'd also noticed the child's blanket was strewn to the side._

 _She had ginger hair, which he knew neither he nor his wife passed those genes down; must have come from the father's side. Her little fists were balled above her head as her chest rose and fell with sleep. She was too young – only about four months, if he had to guess – for him to tell which parent she looked like._

 _Rick stood there for a few minutes, musing to himself about having a grandchild. He wondered how he was supposed to feel about it. Was his Beth a fool for going through with this, knowing almost every other Beth in every other timeline hadn't bothered to have this baby? He didn't know._

 _Suddenly, a loud, shrill cry pierced his thoughts. The baby, Summer, was awake, and screaming bloody murder. He jumped a bit; it had been so long since he'd heard a baby cry._

 _"God damn it," he'd heard someone, Jerry, say aloud through the small baby monitor next to the crib. "How long do they need before they sleep through the night…"_

 _Instantly, the portal gun was back in front of him, and he was setting coordinates for anywhere else._

 _He froze when he heard his daughter's voice._

 _"It takes a few months," Beth responded, sounding exhausted. "It's your turn to get her."_

 _It had been so long since he'd heard her speak, and she didn't sound like he'd remembered. He winced at how much time had truly passed._

 _"Me?" Jerry yawned, rolling over. "I did this last night; it's your turn, Beth."_

 _"Excuse me," Beth replied sharply. "But it's actually your turn, because I was the one who got up and took care of her last night. Can you not be lazy for once, get your ass out of bed, and be a parent?"_

 _Rick's gaze went back and fourth between the small radio and the screaming baby. Were they really fighting when this infant needed attention? He was by no means a role model parent, but even he knew this wasn't okay. And he looked down to his granddaughter with a twinge of pity._

 _The yelling and lack of action, as well as the being this close to family matters were starting to be a little too much to handle for Rick, so he turned to the left and fired out a portal for him to escape._

 _But he couldn't step through it right away; whatever it was, something compelled him to turn back to the child and pull the blanket over her small, squirming body._

 _And with that, he threw himself into another dimension, not really sure how he felt about the life his daughter had chosen for herself…or the life she'd created for her own daughter._

 _In another completely different dimension, he missed how baby Summer settled down once she had her source of warmth back around her._

 _Every adventure after that, his thoughts were constantly plagued by wondering about the lives of his daughter and granddaughter that he was missing. And he found himself back in their timeline, watching them over the years before he eventually decided he was tired of running alone, because he wasn't finding whatever it was he was looking for._

 _So one day, he thought, maybe he should give the family thing a try._

* * *

Rick frowned at the memory; her parents had been at this since before she could remember, and maybe even before then as well. So this one, stupid argument settled on top of the pile with all the others, he didn't really understand why it mattered so much.

He wasn't a doctor or a psychologist by any means, but it didn't take a doctor or a psychologist to diagnose Summer as depressed. The kid had gone through emotional neglect and traumatizing fighting all her life; Rick didn't need to look too hard to see the mental toll it had taken.

She was constantly on a mission in life to be popular, a petty goal no doubt; but it went deeper than that. It was more about acceptance than anything else. It was about feeling validated in a life where she felt like she contributed to a void.

And maybe she'd finally hit a snapping point with this argument. Maybe she finally broke. Or maybe Summer was just being the normal, bratty and hormonal teenager she was.

But that thought made Rick purse his lips, because he knew it wasn't true. His granddaughter wasn't like any of the other teenagers he knew. She was actually quite capable of taking care of herself, when he thought about it.

* * *

 _It all happened so quickly, his brain could barely process what was happening._

 _She'd been grabbed and pulled through the portal so fast, he'd sworn if he had blinked, he would have missed it._

 _"Oh crap."_

 _His body just followed its instincts and he'd flung himself into the new world without another thought._

 _His feet landed on the strange, desert landscape that was Gazorpazorp, and Summer was being dragged away by giant monsters; the male Gazorpians, his mind pieced together._

 _"GRANDPA RICK! HELP!" she had screamed over and over while being dragged away._

 _And he had watched her fight the whole time he ran after her, reaching into his lab coat to pull out his laser pistol. She didn't shy away from anything. Summer kicked and screamed and resisted the entire time, even when she was shoved on the ground and it all seemed hopeless for her. She refused to accept her fate._

 _It was as impressive as it was terrifying._

 _Rick shot with his usual precision and accuracy, easily hitting his marks, and watched the Gazorpians go down all around her._

 _She'd just been crawling through the hole of one when he'd gotten there to aid her, trying to calm his own heart rate as he did. He didn't like this feeling of anxiety that was violently spreading throughout his chest; it was way too close a call for her, and for him._

 _"Still think it's a good idea to go through holes without a wiener?" he asked, trying to seem indifferent to what had just occurred._

 _"I wanna go home," she'd said, and he was glad._

 _He didn't want her here, at risk. He was already way too worried about Morty raising what he now realized were these ferocious, sex-addicted monsters; he didn't think he could handle having to keep Summer safe while he searched this planet for other answers._

 _And yet, karma caught up to him and bitch slapped him in the face as his portal gun was hit by a rock, shattering. His heart skipped a beat._

 _Fuck._

 _"Great, now I have to take over a whole planet because of your stupid boobs."_

 _He made it sound as harsh as possible when he said it, trying to cover up his own insecurity as he noticed the dozens of other male Gazorpians now coming at them. He knew he could handle them, but could Summer?_

 _She didn't flinch as he'd murdered his way to a ruling status. After he'd conquered everything around them, he was surprised how quickly Summer got past her terrifying ordeal. Wasn't rape and/or attempted rape supposed to be traumatizing or whatever?_

 _She'd refused to put on the burka, knowing full well it would have been much safer for her. Some stupid excuse like how her top was too cute or whatever bullshit she'd spewed, he didn't care. He just wanted her to get home so he didn't have to worry about her._

 _And yet, in his haste to save her, it ended up being that Summer had saved both of them in the end. She found her own witty way to appease the female leaders, and she'd saved their lives. She'd even found a way for them to get home._

 _Rick didn't want to bring her anywhere after the experience was over, even though he knew that she was indeed capable of handling herself._

* * *

He'd started to respect her more after that whole episode. But he'd also strictly refused to bring her on adventures afterwards as well.

The risk was too great.

And it wasn't long after that he'd started to notice just how much it bothered her.

She'd had that first taste of exploration. After Gazorpazorp, she'd starting coming around him and Morty more, asking where they were going and what they were going to do there. She'd even asked a few times if she could go with, to which Rick always answered the same thing.

"No."

She'd always huff and glare at him after that. Sometimes she'd argue and demand to know why. Other times she'd just storm away. She didn't understand the reason behind his refusals, and Rick had never told her as much.

It got worse when she'd discovered the truth about her existence; she was an "unwanted-teen-knock-up-prom-baby," as she'd described herself. He'd heard Morty in her room talking to her late one night, a few days after Morty had convinced her not to run away.

Morty had told Rick about how he talked to his sister a lot more openly after that. And how he sometimes worried how increasingly unhappy Summer seemed to be in that house. Rick sometimes worried, too.

She always seemed to want an escape after that, and it seemed that the only word Rick ever spoke to her after every request to tag along was 'no.'

He didn't want to admit he was scared of losing his granddaughter.

He hypothesized that driving a wedge between them by constantly denying her attention would get her to stop asking, and that she'd move on. But he didn't realize she'd literally end up making a deal with the devil.

* * *

 _She'd kept her gaze fixated on the outside view of the ship as Rick drove her to her apparently new job._

 _"My boss is this really smart, eccentric old man that treats me nice and values me."_

 _Rick Sanchez was the smartest being in the galaxy, and it didn't take being the smartest being in the galaxy to know that it was a subtle jab at him._

 _Still, he feigned a lack of interest._

 _"Meow," he had said back. "Can't wait to meet this fascinating character."_

 _He couldn't lie to himself and think what she'd said didn't bother him for whatever reason, though._

 _Did she really think he was treating her badly because he didn't want her to get into dangerous situations like he was always dragging her brother into? He thought she'd understand that was the reason he never brought her to other dimensions. But he also knew she was stubborn as hell, just like her mother and just like him; she thought herself more capable._

 _He didn't like Mr. Needful the second he had laid eyes on him. And he knew something was up with the creepy-ass store Summer was working in right when he'd walked in._

 _The microscope incident didn't infuriate himself much as did the fact that Summer was actually working for the devil. He didn't know if she was being forced against her will to do so or not, but he couldn't stand by. He had to take action, and still make himself seem distant._

 _So he marched in there, hoping that he could disrupt the shitty curing business by exposing the voodoo black magic crap. If the store closed, Summer would leave, right?_

 _But that fucker fought him on it, and Rick couldn't hold himself back when shit got violent. He was still swinging when Summer put herself in between the two of them, trying to break it up._

 _He would swear on every cell in his body, and the lives of every single person he knew and cared about, that he never meant to do it. He wasn't, nor would he ever be, aiming at her; he was aiming for that fucker conning her into working for him by manipulating her feelings of loneliness against her._

 _But it happened anyway._

 _A fist intended for Needful collided with Summer's left cheek when she'd put herself at just the wrong place between them, and everything froze._

 _All three of them stood in shocked silence, Rick's fist unable to unfold at his side for whatever reason._

 _"Shit," Rick breathed. "Fucking shit."_

 _Summer blinked a few times, like she was trying to make sense of the moment; like her brain couldn't process that she had just been_

 _accidentally punched in the face. A small trickle of blood seeped from her nose. Rick could see tears pooling in her eyes, but she was fighting to hold them in. She wouldn't cry; not in front of others._

 _Rick's chest felt hallow, and he suddenly felt like he couldn't breathe. There were a million apologies trapped behind his pursed lips, because he was never good at saying sorry. He was waiting for something to happen. Anything. The silence and the stillness were becoming unbearable._

 _She surprised him yet again; she stepped to the side, fixed her hair, threw out a few choked accusations and shoved him towards the front door of the store. She still didn't want him there._

 _Rick couldn't believe it. He hovered at the door for a few moments, looking at her hardened face, that little trickle of blood coming out a little more steadily and the cheek starting to swell. He knew she was mad at him for always denying her, but this was absurd. She had to know that it had been an accident._

 _He shot a glare to Mr. Needful, standing just behind Summer, smiling like the smug fucker that he was; an 'I won' expression painted all over his face. It was that moment Rick knew he had to save his granddaughter from the devil._

 _"W–whoops," he roughly shoved the old-looking vase next to the door onto the ground, a satisfying crashing and shattering noise erupting as he slammed the door shut behind him._

 _For the next few days, nothing else mattered other than revenge._

 _Rick was never a petty enough person to even bother with the thought of getting back at someone. He was way too awesome for that kind of thing. But that douche needed to be taught a lesson for fucking with him, and for fucking with Summer even though she didn't realize it. He had a stupid sense of foreboding that Needful would fuck her over in the end, anyway._

 _So he went to extreme lengths; he opened that store and made a commercial and actually hired people and did so much extra shit. It was so worth it to see how much it pissed the devil off, too._

 _But when he saw it wasn't stopping Needful, just pushing him to take another route, which Summer followed him down, he gave up on it all. He could see it wasn't worth the effort to keep going, and he somehow knew the fallout for Summer was coming. So he went home, drank and waited._

 _Sure enough, hours later, Summer appeared before him, teary-eyed and so confused._

 _"How's your pretend grandpa doing?" Rick did his best to hide the bitterness in his voice. "AKA, the devil?"_

 _"He dumped me…" Summer said, seemingly still in shock about the whole thing._

 _"Oof, sorry," Rick said, showing a little bit of his concern as he turned off the TV and made room for her to sit on the couch._

 _"Did we learn a lesson here that I'm not seeing…?" she asked quietly, trying to rub the remaining tears away._

 _"Not sure," Rick replied quietly, his eyes fixated on the slowly-fading bruise across her cheek._

 _She had some makeup trying to cover it up, but her tears had washed some of it off. And now he could see the physical pain he'd brought her, plain as day._

 _If it bothered her, she'd never said anything. She knew it had been completely accidental. But it didn't stop him from staring at it._

 _One could count the number of times Rick had felt the emotion of guilt in his lifetime for some of the things he'd done. Leaving Beth and his wife was one. Destroying an entire reality and forcing his grandson to leave his old life behind was another. Hurting Summer in the ways that he had was the newest addition to the list._

 _"Maybe in a much bigger way, Mr. Needful gave us both what we really wanted?" she frowned, looking down at the floor. "Because I was always jealous of you hanging out with Morty, and you didn't realize how much you valued my approval?"_

 _Rick swallowed hard, because he knew she was right. She'd hit the nail on the head with that one, and he wasn't sure how to respond._

 _After an extended silence, Summer began to regret her words, thinking Grandpa Rick thought she was stupid._

 _"No, that's dumb," Rick said, mainly out of habit to be a sarcastic douche needing to push her away._

 _He wanted to punch himself in the face; he knew old habits would be hard to break._

 _"Yeah, not satisfying," she sighed, feeling defeated._

 _He continued to look at her, feeling that overwhelming guilt steadily building. He owed her some happiness, because he'd been denying it to her for too long._

 _"I'll tell you what, though," he said, a devious smiling forming on his face as the plan was taking form in his head. "If–if–if it's satisfaction you're after, I think I might have an idea…"_

 _And that was what brought them together for the next few days, spending time helping each other work out and bringing them closer._

 _It wasn't like this when he hung out with Morty, because he and his grandson had a different bond. And he was truly starting to see how different Summer was._

 _How determined she was. How focused and intelligent and witty and fun she could be if he gave her the chance._

 _After their mission was over, and they had beaten the piss out of Needful, they went out for coffee to celebrate a job well done, laughing as they recalled their training montage and how it all paid off so damn well in the end._

 _"Listen, Summer," he said after the laughter had died down. "For what it's worth, I'm sorry I've been such a grumpy douche to you. I'll work on that. But don't think that means I'm gonna drag you around the galaxy all the time. It's hard enough managing your brother most of the time when I'm trying to get important shit done. Still, I guess it wouldn't hurt to bring you with us a every once in a while, as long as you do what I say. I don't wanna have to take over multiple planets because of your stupid boobs."_

 _Summer smiled to herself; she knew it was the best apology she'd ever get from her grandfather, and it was totally unprompted._

 _"Deal, bro," she said._

 _He nodded, taking a long sip of coffee._

* * *

He was true to his word; he did bring her around a lot more after that.

He let her hang with them on the seemingly harmless adventures. He answered her questions when she'd appear in the garage and ask what he was making. He let her hang around when he froze time to give Morty enough time to clean the house after their insane party.

And he loved every second of it.

He loved his adventures with Morty and wouldn't trade them for the world, but he couldn't deny that he was having twice as much fun when Summer tagged along with them. The three of them exploring different dimensions and seeing movies and playing games together…it just worked. It brought him a happiness he hadn't felt in a long time.

He'd never admit it out loud, but he definitely loved his grandkids. Both of them.

And the more he thought about all the times he'd spent with Summer, the more he could form a better a opinion of her.

The more he could see he respected her.

* * *

 _"She's my bitch of a sister," Morty had half smiled, tossing a gun to Summer to help them fight off the swarm of invading memory parasites._

 _This was a true test; Rick had never seen Summer in a fight before, and he was a little nervous. Morty would be fine; he'd seen this shit dozens of times by this point in their adventures together. Summer fighting off potentially dangerous aliens disguised as people they "knew" and "loved" made him anxious._

 _But for whatever reason, he didn't doubt her abilities._

 _And rightfully so._

 _He couldn't help but feel a sting of pride as he, his daughter and his grandchildren easily took out the infestation surrounding them._

 _When it came time for him to kill Pencilvester, Rick couldn't find it in himself to do it. He knew it was a fake, disgusting, memory parasite, and yet he couldn't force himself to take him out. So he called on Morty, who didn't bat an eye when firing the gun._

 _Rick turned just in time to see Summer confronting her "friend," Tinkles. He cocked his gun, assuming Summer would do as he had done. Unable to murder someone she thought of as a friend, she'd surely ask him, or Beth or Morty to kill the dumb unicorn shitting out rainbows._

 _"Summer, I've always loved you!" Tinkles had pleaded._

 _Rick took a step forward._

 _"Yep," was all Summer said as she shot and killed Tinkles._

 _And Rick raised an eyebrow, smirking briefly before he continued on his own rampage._

 _"That a girl," he muttered under his breath, aiming for another one._

* * *

Summer had also proved herself to be above the average intelligence of her family and her peers.

He was thankful for that, because after spending so much time with her younger brother, he realized Morty was way too much like Jerry for him to be okay with, and he was slowly working on getting that out of Morty.

He'd looked at her grades once, out of curiosity and partial boredom. Mostly A's, save for a few B's here and there. He was proud of her for that. She'd be successful somewhere down the line for sure.

She'd definitely had a lot of common sense, too. In fact, he could admit she had a striking level that was so uncommon for her age.

She'd proved herself to be quick-witted and reliable time and time again.

But never more so when she managed to save his life for the first time; it was a defining moment for Summer in Rick's eyes, and it solidified her in an exclusive list of people Rick had respected highly.

* * *

 _It was kind of hilarious to see how shocked Summer was when she found out real vampires existed in her world. It was also kind of annoying how desperate she was to get rid of the single one closest to her._

 _Of course Rick had already known about the gym coach being one of them; he'd done a thorough investigation of the school Jerry had enrolled and entrusted to enhance his grandchildren's futures in. He could have put together a hundred reasons right off the bat why it wasn't a good fit for either of the kids, but for whatever reason – probably being Jerry's just an idiot – Jerry completely thought that place would make Morty and Summer smarter._

 _Rick never gave the gym coach/vampire a second thought; both his grandchildren were too skinny for their blood to ever be desired by one of their kind. And who even cared about the other kids?_

 _Still, Rick couldn't fight Jerry on their attendance if he wanted Morty and occasionally Summer to be allowed to go on adventures. That much he knew. So when Summer offered the ridiculous plan of him becoming a teenager to help them hunt the vampire down, he had to force himself not to gag at the sheer stupidity of it._

 _Because seriously, fuck that._

 _It was only after he'd dropped off Beth and Jerry for couples' therapy that he'd realized how bored he was, and decided why the fuck not? His only other option was to oxidize some glaxin crystals he'd picked up on the planet Nrexin and analyze the radio waves they gave off. A boring day indeed._

 _Seriously, fuck that._

 _And thus, there was Tiny Rick, wooden stake in hand, leading Summer and Morty through the dark locker rooms of the gym. He was too proud to admit he was actually having a blast with them, hunting a vampire as a team of teenagers._

 _It was only immediately after they had accomplished what they set out to do that Rick realized there was a problem._

 _At first, he had it all under wraps; he was Tiny Rick 100%, and nothing seemed out of the ordinary. But throughout the day, he started to fade slowly. At first it was nothing, but as the day went on, he started to notice himself feeling further and further away, and his body starting to act on its own._

 _Eventually it escalated to a point were he could see and hear and feel everything Tiny Rick was doing and saying, but he couldn't completely control it all. It was the strangest thing; something he hadn't anticipated would happen._

 _He had to fight with everything he had in him to get Tiny Rick in that chair after they returned home. He used the last of his strength to get those wires connected to his head and to start up the program on his computer that would restore him back to his old self. And he foolishly thought that was it. But when Summer got that fateful text, everything went to hell._

 _"Tell him Tiny Rick will be there!" he'd heard himself say._

 _Wait, what?_

 _No._

 _No, no, no._

 _Seriously, fuck that._

 _But he couldn't stop it anymore. He felt like he was floating, completely aware but powerless to do anything. He lost all control, and he knew if he couldn't get it back, he would die._

 _He pushed and fought and tried everything he could to get back, but it was like trying to move a mountain with only his hands. He couldn't do jack shit. He couldn't even control what he was saying anymore, and he knew he was utterly and completely screwed in the A, his mind trapped inside the conscious of a teenage clone of himself._

 _The first lapse came in the middle of the stupid party. Tiny Rick had decided he wanted to play guitar for everyone, and Rick, trapped on the inside, felt something shift. He felt an opening, a crack; a small hole in the prison he was stuck in._

 _He felt like he was screaming, even though he could hear Tiny Rick's voice calm and carefree as Rick forced the words through his lips._

 _"Let me out, what you see is not the same person as me. My life's a lie; I'm not who you're looking at. Let me out, set me free, I'm really old; this isn't me. My real body's slowly dyin' in a vat… Is anybody listening, can anyone understand? Stop looking at me like that and actually help me. Help me, help me; I'm gonna die. Tiny Rick!"_

 _Inwardly, he cringed, but it was the best he could do. When the music stopped, that small gap closed, and he was trapped once again, stuck watching but powerless to take action. And he prayed to a god he didn't believe in that someone had understood._

 _It really didn't surprise him the next day when he noticed that Summer had actually gotten the hidden message._

 _After a dismissal of math class that seemed to have Tiny Rick and Morty ecstatic, she approached them both, looking a bit awkward and nervous. She chewed her lip as she asked Tiny Rick when he was going to get back into his old body._

 _Rick was pissed when not only did Tiny Rick fight her on it, but Morty took his side as well. Idiot._

 _Summer, realizing breaking through to Tiny Rick wouldn't work, tried to convince Morty there was a problem. She held up the picture Rick had managed to force Tiny Rick to draw, the message, 'help me Morty and Summer' scribbled across the top._

 _Tiny Rick shrugged it off, claiming it was his 'emo streak'._

 _Morty rolled his eyes as well, and Rick wanted to beat his head on a wall…if he could control his head, anyways. But how could Morty be so thick-headed?_

 _Seriously, fuck that._

 _This prompted Summer to get angrier. She launched into an explanation of what was happening, and maybe it was because, as a teenager herself, she understood, but Rick was impressed she'd managed to figure it all out nonetheless._

 _Her explanation earned her a glare from Tiny Rick, paired with an insult._

 _"Well, Summer, I hear Toby Matthews isn't into psycho chicks," he spat back at her, strolling past her like she was nothing. "Can't think of anyone that is. I'll see you motherfuckers at the dance!"_

 _Rick was seething in his mental prison; how dare this little fucker talk to his granddaughter like that. When he got out of there…_

 _Rick absolutely despised being a teenager with every fiber of his conscious mind. He hated that he could feel and be aware of_

 _everything Tiny Rick was and couldn't control any of it._

 _He hated that he could feel Tiny Rick get more and more annoyed with Summer when she had done nothing wrong. He hated that when a 16-year-old had winked at him as he walked passed her in the hall, Tiny Rick felt an attraction to her. It disgusted Rick, and some god forbid that Tiny Rick would make it with any of the underage girls in this school, because Rick would have to be there for it all._

 _After he left her behind in the classroom where he shut her down, Tiny Rick didn't encounter Summer again for the rest of the day. Not even at home, and Rick began to worry that maybe going against the coolest kid in school and her brother was too discouraging for her._

 _While Tiny Rick prepared for the big dance, Rick's thoughts began to wander. How much time did his body have left in the vat? No one was changing the hyperbaric quantum fluid inside, and it wouldn't last much longer. Would there be another chance for him to get out? Would Morty stop being such a sex-obsessed brat and actually get the message?_

 _Rick was more than relieved when he saw Summer at the dance; she seemed a bit jumpy, though, on edge even. She was up to something, he could tell as much. Rick just hoped it would work, and was relieved Tiny Rick paid her no mind so he wasn't suspicious._

 _Meanwhile, Rick was fighting his own battle within. He got another chance to voice himself when Tiny Rick decided to own the dance floor, and he took full advantage over it._

 _"Let me out, let me out! This is_

 _not a dance! I'm begging for help, I'm screaming for help; please come let me out!"_

 _He added a nice little, 'I'm dying in a vat in the garaaaaage' on the end, knowing that if Morty couldn't get the hint this time around, he was truly as brain-dead as his father; a thought that made Rick cringe._

 _Minutes later, Tiny Rick found himself expelled from the school, and Rick rejoiced internally. He might still be trapped, but no more high school._

 _Seriously, fuck that._

 _But his relief disappeared when he felt Tiny Rick marching up to Summer, a glare stuck on his face and a finger pointed directly at her._

 _Tiny Rick was relentless, screaming loud enough to get the attention of everyone at the dance. He slapped the drink in her hand, spilling it all over Summer. She looked mortified._

 _Rick growled; if this shit got anymore physical, he'd find a way to off himself as Tiny Rick. He swore he'd do it._

 _"YOU RATTED ON ME?!" Tiny Rick had demanded._

 _"Fine, YES, because I love you and I'm trying to save your life!" Summer threw back, her face just as determined, but her eyes held fear._

 _With that rebuttal, Summer had sealed her fate._

 _"Summer Smith is a psycho nerd and she just got me kicked out of school!" Tiny Rick declared to everyone._

 _The entire gym was silent as Tiny Rick marched out the doors, slamming them shut. And then, the chorus of "boo's" and other profanities rocked the hall that Tiny Rick walked down. He smiled to himself, somewhat pleased he could ruin Summer's life if she had ruined his._

 _Rick was even more pissed than Tiny Rick was, because he knew the damage he had just done. Rick couldn't care less about every kid in that school aside from Morty and Summer, but he knew how important it was for Summer to feel accepted, as her entire life had felt like rejection after rejection. He could even hear Summer running the opposite way, sobbing._

 _"Fuck this," Tiny Rick seethed on the walk home._

 _'Fuck you', Rick responded._

 _"Fuck high school," Tiny Rick said, kicking a trashcan as he walked down the sidewalk, home in sight._

 _'Fuck you.'_

 _"Fuck Summer," he spat on the ground._

 _'FUCK YOU.'_

 _Red flags went up for Rick the second he heard Tiny Rick have the thought while walking through the house, towards the garage. Tiny Rick knew as long as Rick's old body was still around, she'd keep trying. So the obvious solution was to get rid of the problem._

 _Rick began fighting again, frantic. He pushed and shoved and tried to break out with everything he had, though it made no difference at all._

 _Fuck, fuck, fuck, he thought as he watched Tiny Rick's hand's wrap around the ax._

 _"Say goodnight, old man," Tiny Rick raised the ax._

 _Though Rick wasn't in his body, he felt like he could feel his heart stop._

 _Neither of them heard Morty and Summer approach, but Rick was incredibly happy when Morty grabbed him, and Tiny Rick dropped profanities one after another._

 _Tiny Rick lost his grip on the ax, and Summer kicked it away, Morty taking a place beside her. They both stood protectively in front of the vat with Rick's body inside._

 _"Summer, you bitch!" Tiny Rick yelled when he realized he no longer had Morty on his side._

 _"Don't talk to her that way; she's your granddaughter!" Morty screamed back._

 _Rick beamed on the inside._

 _Show this asshole up, Morty, he cheered._

 _Eventually it turned into a fist-fight, and somehow, Morty had managed to pin Tiny Rick down while Summer brought out her most depressing, shitty, teen-angst-garbage song on her iPod, and forced Tiny Rick to listen._

 _That hole Rick had been able to barely scream through earlier, became a giant open window; one that Rick felt like he could completely jump through. And just like that, he was mostly back in control._

 _He struggled to tell Summer and Morty what to do; how to get him back into his old body, but they understood enough. They did exactly as they were told, and the next thing Rick knew, he was hurled back into his real self, choking on hyperbaric quantum fluid and falling face-first onto the floor of the garage._

 _"Holy shit…" he said while trying to clear his lungs out; it was the only thing he could force himself to say._

 _It was disorienting to be back in complete control after not having it for two days._

 _"PANTS!" he heard Summer scream, but his nudity was the last thing on his mind._

 _"Thanks kids, you figured it out," Rick paused for a second. "Well, Summer did. Kind of weird you were willing to sell my existence out for some trim, Morty."_

 _"PANTS!" Summer demanded again, but he studiously ignored her, too relieved that she had pulled it off._

 _"But I forgive you both, because you know what?" he asked, putting his arms around them and pulling them close to him. "I learned today something important: the teenage mind is its own worst enemy."_

 _Summer tugged and pushed away from him the whole time._

 _He also made a point to admit his planned 'Operation Phoenix' wasn't going to work out the way he hoped. So he lowered them all into his secret lair, grabbed the ax, and began swinging. He destroyed every clone of himself he had made, all before a screaming Summer and Morty._

 _He purposely saved Tiny Rick for last, swinging as hard as he could at the little bastard's head._

 _'That's for trying to hurt my grandson, you piece of shit,' he thought bitterly, severing the head in one clean swing._

 _"Oh my God, put some pants on!"_

 _He continued chopping away, until he noticed his phone vibrating. He paused to read the thread of unread messages from Beth, and a few from Jerry._

 _He told them he had to go pick up their parents, but looked down at Tiny Rick's head lying there, looking all too put together for his taste._

 _"One last swing for the road," he swung the ax down as hard as he could, making sure it was completely destroyed._

 _'And that's for fucking with my granddaughter.'_

 _"FOR THE LOVE OF GOD, GET DRESSED!" Summer screamed at the top of her lungs as he walked away._

 _He chose not to; pants would probably ruin the high he was on, anyway._

 _Seriously, fuck that._

* * *

Rick found himself somewhat smiling at the memory; leave it to Morty to puke his guts out, while Summer was only phased by the lack of clothing in the situation.

He had come to learn that there were a lot of differences between the two of them.

But he knew he could always count on Summer, like how she'd saved his ass again two days after the Tiny Rick ordeal, when she'd been able to send his package to the purge world so he and Morty could survive…despite tearing a hole in the garage. But she'd explained that was Jerry's fault mostly, and he believed that 100 percent.

Even though he'd made an effort to pay more attention to her, and even bring her some places with him and Morty, he realized he still didn't give her the attention she wanted and deserved. And although her and Morty shared a pretty strong sibling bond, he was almost always with Rick, helping him and not spending a lot of time with his sister.

Rick realized he was just as much a part of the problem as Beth and Jerry were. He wasn't unintentionally verbally abusive like they were; he was unintentionally mentally abusive.

That was the reason Summer ran; she didn't feel wanted, by anyone. He knew school had only gotten harder for her after the Tiny Rick incident, as she had gone out with friends less and less who had betrayed her in favor of Tiny Rick.

God, he did not miss high school. (Seriously, fuck that.)

And suddenly, it didn't feel right to blame Summer so much for running away like she did.

Granted, what she did was stupid and when he got to her, he'd make that very clear. Just because he'd had some epiphany about how shitty her life kinda was didn't mean it was any better for her to steal his portal gun or any smarter for her to send herself to an outlaw planet.

But on another level, he could empathize. He knew all too well what the need to run felt like; he'd spent 20 years of his life doing it. He'd be a hypocrite for thinking otherwise.

After spending hours thinking back on his relationship with Summer over the past two years, a glance at his computer told him he still had a 45-minute ride before he'd get to Zenoa, and a numb feeling settled its way over him as he started looking over his stockpile of weapons.

He had a feeling he'd need his laser pistol, so he tucked it back into his lab coat after making sure it was fully charged.

Rick started thinking of just how he was going to find Summer once he got there. He knew the location his portal gun would have taken her by heart, but without the gun being active and on her person, he had no other clues as to where she could be.

So he pulled out his space phone – the one he only used for emergencies.

This definitely qualified.

He counted six dial tones before he had an answer on the other side of the line.

"Rick?" Squanchy questioned, surprised by the random call from his friend.

"I have a question for you, Squanchy" he stated, skipping the hello part. "Out of your nine lives, how many would you say you have left?"

"Probably six."

"I may need to borrow one of them. Meet me on Zenoa in 40 minutes. The usual spot."

There was a pause, but finally Rick heard Squanchy say, "alright" and hung up.

The rest of the ride he spent in silence, hoping he wasn't too late.

* * *

 **Author's notes:  
** \- Sorry this chapter took so long to come out. Fanfiction hasn't been letting me upload new chapters for whatever reason.


	5. Revelations

Coming back to reality was a process for Summer; a painfully slow process.

The feelings of a powerful headache were what initially roused Summer from the deep sleep she was in. The migraine felt like it was splitting her skull in half. She kept her eyes closed tightly, willing the pain to go away, but it was relentless.

The second thing she became aware of, was how cold she was. She could feel a hard, metal surface beneath her, and a chill in the air of wherever she was. It might of actually helped with the headache had that been her only concern at the time.

The third feeling was the slight discomfort in her right arm, just near her elbow. It was a pinch of some kind, and she could feel something moving into her through the point of the pain.

She fought against the fog in her mind until she was eventually and finally able to open her eyes. When an unfamiliar ceiling greeted her, she shot up, her head screaming in pain as she turned all around and tried to figure out where she was.

"Jesus Christ, Summer," an all-too-familiar voice scolded her from behind. "You almost pulled your fucking IV out; just calm your tits down."

Panic rose in her chest as she realized who was with her in the room. Her eyes fell to the glare of Rick, watching her as he approached and inspecting a bunch of computers surrounding her.

She finally noticed the IV in her arm, and traced the tube to a bad of clear fluid hanging next to the medical table she was lying on. Rick checked the bag and then the needle in her arm, making sure it was still properly inserted. Above all the confusion she felt, like how he'd managed to find her and what exactly she was doing in this makeshift hospital, she couldn't force any questions out of her mouth.

Rick seemed satisfied with whatever readings the equipment gave off, and then pulled up a chair to sit next to her, looking at her hard.

"Don't take this out," he warned her, resting his arms on his legs and leaning forward. "You need this to filter out the shit poison that Floosur injected you with. Although, I gotta say, you were only out for about three hours. Pretty impressive. You should really lay back down, though; it'll help."

She only stared at him, dumbfounded. There are a million questions dancing through her head. _What are you doing here? How did you find me? What are you gonna do?_

How much trouble am I in?

"G–Grandpa Rick?" was the only thing she could force passed her trembling lips.

Her heart rate quickened, the amount of trouble she knows she's definitely in slowly dawning upon her.

Rick shoots up again. Summer's suddenly looking a lot paler and her heart rhythm is going crazy with nerves. It isn't a good thing; Rick knows this could very easily force however much of that toxin still in her body to spread rapidly. Though alarmed, he kept his face even as he looked over her.

"Huh?" he asked, raising an eyebrow at her just for emphasis on his feigned disinterest. "Oh, um. No. I'm not your Rick; I'm not – this isn't my home dimension. I'm from YX-43."

With that fact, for a reason unknown to YX-43 Rick, Summer calmed down, much to his relief. He noticed she was focused on his face, trying to pick out any miniscule differences. YX-43 could have been a mirror image of her own Rick, had she not looked hard enough; she noticed he had a small, faded burn scar on the right side of his neck. He looked much more pale and worn than her Rick, too; he had deeper, darker circles under his eyes.

YX-43 Rick didn't like the way she was analyzing him, though.

"You really need to lay back down, Summer," he told her.

Once she was satisfied he truly was a different Rick, she felt like she was still clear of trouble and she had realized she was starting to feel dizzy again, she listened to him. But she kept her eyes on him.

"Do y–y–you remember what happed a few hours ago?" he inquired.

It was odd; he wouldn't take his eyes off of her. And she couldn't read his face; she didn't know what he was looking for.

"Why are you here and not back in your own dimension?" she blurted out, feeling awkward under his intense stare.

"I could ask you the same thing," he laughed, some hardness to it. "Well, to be fair, you are in you–you–you–your own dimension. But my point is here you are, on C-137 Zenoa – one of the most notoriously dangerous places in any of the infinite timelines and dimensions, mind you – Rickless and stumbling around on your own like you have no idea what you're doing. And clearly, you don't, because I had to save your ass from being eaten a few hours ago. So I'll ask you again, because I guarantee, your being here is going to be a lot more interesting than mine: do you remember what happened a few hours ago? And I want the part about how you got here without your Rick, too."

She huffed; this might not have been _her Rick_ , but he definitely was _a Rick_ nonetheless. The standard, two parts hard ass, one part hidden concern, all other parts conceited as hell. Still, she knew she owed him an explanation, because as she was beginning to recall, he did save her from who knows what.

"Are you gonna tell my Rick on me; is that what this is?" the thought occurred to her. "Because if that's the case, I'd rather just wait until he gets here to drag me back home."

She finally took her eyes off of him and looked back up to the ceiling, pretending like she wasn't afraid to challenge him back. If she couldn't get her own Rick's respect, maybe she could earn YX-43 Rick's.

He did cock an eyebrow at her, a bit surprised, not by her pushiness, but by how much it reminded him of his Summer in YX-43. Pushy, assertive and didn't take shit.

"I've heard a lot of things about C-137 Rick – your Rick – but I've never actually met him and plan to avoid it, if I can," he said evenly.

Of the two years she had gotten to know her Grandpa Rick, she'd never known him to be a liar. He had always been honest, no matter who it would offend or why. He wasn't a pushover, and she couldn't imagine this Rick being too different. They already looked and sounded the same. And despite everything, she trusted her Grandpa Rick. So she decided she trusted YX-43 Rick, too.

"I stole my Grandpa's portal gun and came here," she eventually sighed; she missed the way YX-43 leaned closer to her, suddenly very interested. "I wasn't necessarily trying to come _here_ ; I just wanted to get away, period. So I smashed the portal gun and–"

"Wait, wait, w–w–wait," he halted her. "You destroyed your own Rick's portal gun? Are you fucking serious?"

Summer bit her lip.

"Yeah. I wanted to make sure no one could come for me."

"So you –you–you transport yourself to a planet full or murderers, rapists and who knows what else, smash the portal gun so no one can find you, and you thought that was okay?" YX-43 Rick scoffed. "What the fuck, Summer? You know, I don't know if your Rick explained this to you ever, but there aren't a lot of Summers that exist in the timelines. And Summers are supposed to be the intelligent ones. Your choices today make you seem like a Morty to me. Is C-137 a dimension where you and Morty's roles are switched?"

Summer turned her head and glared at him. YX-43 Rick was treating her almost no better than her own Rick did.

"My decisions are my own," she defended. "I didn't ask for and don't need your approval, Rick. But anyways, I smashed the gun and wandered into town and you know the rest. You were there, so I don't need to explain it to a genius-douche."

"Fair enough," he laughed again. "Do you know where you were when you smashed the gun? Did you bring it with you or did you leave it behind?"

"Kinda?" Summer sighed, turning her head and closing her eyes again. "A few miles outside of town."

"Which way?" he asked again, standing. "Would you know if you were shown a map? Can you point in a general direction?"

"I could point but good luck finding it," she said, then paused. "Why does finding it matter? Don't you already have one?"

"Summer, despite what I said earlier, I really doubt you're totally stupid," he said, rushing around the room and starting to gather some supplies into a small bag. "My Summer wasn't stupid, and you're a lot like she was. So I doubt I need to fully explain to you the importance of some of the parts of the portal gun, and how bad it–it–it would be if someone bad got those parts."

YX-43 Rick pressed a button on one of the panels, and Summer felt the back of the table begin lifting her up into a sitting position. She wore a confused look on her face.

" _Was?_ " she asked, watching as he ran all over the room shoving things into his bag.

He ignored her, a now driven look completely all over his features. He attached a laser pistol to his hip underneath his lab coat, and slung the bag over his shoulder.

A thought occurred to Summer.

"Rick, where is your Morty?" she asked.

That stopped him. YX-43 Rick froze and looked back at her, yet another unreadable expression on his face.

***

 _It was late at night, and they were sitting on Summer's bed._

 _Morty seemed restless that night; whatever adventure Rick had dragged him on that day had really shaken him. He couldn't sleep. So he knocked on her door, asking if they could talk for a while._

 _He told her about the horrible trip they had hunting down an alternate Rick who kidnapped Morty's and tortured them to hide himself. It was traumatizing for her poor brother._

 _Morty had told Summer of something called the council of Ricks, and how every Rick he had seen there had a Morty. He explained to her that Ricks almost never went anywhere without their Mortys, because it would be too easy to track them or whatever. Something about brainwaves and yadda yadda yadda. The whole conversation had been confusing, as Morty didn't seem to fully understand it himself. He just knew the one simple fact: Rick's didn't travel without their Mortys._

 _"So, let me see if I got this right," Summer had asked Morty. "These Ricks, this 'Council of Ricks,' hate and want to hide from government so much, that they made a government of themselves…?"_

 _Morty nodded in affirmation._

 _"That's pretty stupid," she mused._

 _"I agree," Rick's voice shocked them as he walked passed her room._

 _He was scowling, the whole time; Summer hadn't missed it._

 _***  
_  
Summer blinked a few times, waiting for YX-43 Rick to answer. The silence was a little frustrating.

"Look, I answered your questions about my little backstory," Summer said. "You owe me some answers, too."

YX-43 Rick looked down at the ground, angry and lost. Summer waited.

"Summer," he finally said, low. "In my dimension, my Morty and Summer are dead."

That was all he gave her. He immediately went back to his frantic packing, until he finally deemed himself ready for whatever he was going to do. Then he approached her.

"Which was did you come from?" he asked, his expression intense. "Where there any distinctive features when you first got here? I need you to think hard about this, Summer. I need to go find that portal gun so the universe isn't potentially royally fucked if someone else were to find it and know what it is."

"Excuse me?" she gasped.

Rick threw his head back and half-sighed-half growled. This was wasting time, which was suddenly very critical.

"If any being in the galaxy happened to stumble upon the very powerful piece of technology you just happened to think it would be a good idea to destroy," he spoke slowly, irritated. "And say this being wanted to use it to destroy universe and timelines and escape with no consequence, they could very much do just that, Summer. If that portal gun still works, which it just might, someone could go on a murder spree and not ever get caught, because there's an infinity of timelines they could hide in and never be tracked. That gun isn't just a gateway for Ricks to travel across the universe. It's the most powerful that has ever existed, and you might have just handed someone that weapon."

She swallowed hard; she hadn't realized how serious this actually was. It wasn't like she knew she could be endangering anybody with destroying it; she just didn't want to be found.

With the gravity of the situation settling upon her, Summer suddenly found herself very, very homesick.

"Summer, _focus_!" YX-43 Rick practically shouted. "We're running out of time here. Just give me a general direction, Summer."

"Um, um–um…" Summer thought long and hard.

She fought back through the hazy memories of her attack, back to way before when she'd first entered the small town.

"I remember these arches when I first got here," she said shakily. "They were red and black and had something written on them. The road that passes underneath that, that's the road I followed here. I remember walking through some hills too, and these weird trees…but that's–that's all I remember, Rick."

He nodded, and turned away from her, hurrying towards the door. He had what he needed.

"Should I come, too?" she asked, suddenly needing to help him find the portal gun to make sure she wasn't responsible for anything terrible happening.

"No, stay here and stay put," YX-43 Rick looked back at her briefly, half way out the door. "If you move too much right now, or even take that IV out, there's about a 90 percent chance you'll succumb to whatever little toxin is still in your body. That shit can spread like wildfire in a forest full of dead trees and gasoline."

Summer paled, and nodded.

"I'll be back soon; do _not_ leave," he warned, then slammed the door shut.

And then she was alone again, only this time, she was alone with the knowledge that she had fucked up.

She had fucked up very, very badly.


	6. Races

YX-43 Rick wasn't gone for long, much to Summer's relief. In fact, he seemed extremely rushed when he'd first gotten back, jumping in though the door and clutching a bag to his chest after he'd shut it. He was breathing hard and kept his eyes locked on the floor, like he'd seen a ghost, or something had seriously scared the shit out of him.

But there was a wild, unfathomable anticipation in his eyes, too. Maybe she'd mistaken fear for…excitement?

The whole time he'd been gone, which honestly couldn't have been over 45 minutes, or an hour tops, Summer was tortured by the words he'd spoken to her before he left. How countless, innocent people could have been murdered because of her stupid, recklessness impulsive decision to smash the portal gun and leave it behind.

When he'd stormed in looking so terrified, she automatically assumed the worst. And she waited for him to announce that someone had gotten it and was on their way to kill them or whatever. Maybe she deserved that, but she wasn't looking forward to it.

Before she could ask what was wrong with him, however, he'd already jumped into action. His face masked with his trademark indifference as he made his way to the table near her and slammed the bag down.

She could have cried or thrown up or fainted or all of the above when she saw YX-43 Rick dump bits and pieces of the portal gun dumped all over the table.

"Oh thank God," Summer said aloud, unable to keep it in.

The Rick before her jumped, his eyes shot over to her. He had a fire in his eyes, some crazy determination in his soul as he roughly analyzed her up and down. It was like he had forgotten she was there.

"What…?" she asked, suddenly nervous again; was there still a problem?

He ignored her question and focused back down on moving the pieces of the gun around. He was in a frenzy, and Summer couldn't understand why. Clearly he wasn't going to tell her, either.

But he seemed to have most if not all of the pieces of the gun there with him. And if he didn't want to bother explaining anything, she assumed it was all okay.

She kept herself seated and quiet, still on the table and still in the same spot he'd left her in. She had behaved the whole time she was there; she hadn't moved, hadn't touched anything, etc. Just sat there alone with her thoughts. But she was restless now that the danger seemed to be avoided.

And now that he had the portal gun, did she need to stay there? Was she needed there? She'd toyed with the idea of asking him if she could stay there with him for a few nights or until she figured out a better move. He might not have been her direct grandfather, but he was a version of him nonetheless.

She very quickly decided that staying there any longer than necessary was a stupid idea, though. She had realized that she didn't want to be anywhere near another version of her grandfather, and she doubted he wanted her to stay, anyway. He'd originally only seemed interested in her for her knowledge of the portal gun's location. Now he had it, and she knew she didn't matter.

She resolved, shortly before he'd come back, to try going solo again. Maybe she could even find a way off this planet and get to a more suitable one. Second time's the charm, right? Or was it the third…

But there were things she wanted to know before she left this place; this mysterious Rick had left her with far more questions than answers. Especially the part when he told her the Summer and Morty from his life were gone. That meant they had existed in the first place, right? Well, why had they…stopped existing?

Her hands at her sides, she idly drummed her fingers on the cold metal surface beneath her wondering if she could – if she should ask him about it.

Would he answer? Probably not.

Would he get pissed? Probably so.

The silence, however, was slowly driving her crazy. She'd been alone in the stillness for the past hour worrying she could have potentially ended countless lives in countless dimensions. Now that the danger was clear, she didn't see the need to torture herself with the quiet anymore.

So, she pressed her luck.

"I think you owe me some backstory now," she said, YX-43 Rick looking up with a slightly confused but more aggravated look.

"I don't owe you shit," was his reply.

Summer bit the inside of her cheek for a moment. At least he hadn't looked back down yet. Maybe there was hope for her to win this fight.

"I told you where I came from," she tried again. "Why can't you tell me about where you came from? Or why my counterpart me from there is dead?"

It was a bold question. Granted, she didn't even know if her alternate self was actually dead. But she had assumed.

The split second of pain and hate that she saw flash in his eyes gave her more conviction with her assumption. YX-43 Rick sucked in a huge breath and held it. She raised an eyebrow; if he thought that gasp response bullshit was going to make her feel guilty about her asking, he was wrong.

After a few moments of stillness, he exhaled, keeping his eyes on Summer as his hands continued organizing pieces.

"You ask way too many questions," was his response. "It's kind of annoying."

"Not as annoying as your stupid, cryptic responses," she challenged.

He snorted.

"Tell ya what," he said after another moment. "I'll tell you what happened , or–or–or how I ended up here, if you tell me why it is you ran away first."

Summer then pursed her lips. She didn't want to admit to this Rick that she was running away because she felt unwanted. That would make her look weak to him, and she was already fighting so hard to gain some level of respect from this asshole. That was always her problem; she always had to feel like people accepted her.

Maybe she should just drop it all together?

His piercing stare told her otherwise. He was daring her to give up; like hell she would do that.

"I just didn't like where I was," she admitted with a shrug. "I was unwanted and miserable on earth with my family. All my parents did was fight about why they shouldn't be together. My little brother and my Grandpa Rick ignored me most of the time. They were way more content on their adventures when I wasn't around. And I was always bitter about that; about having a grandpa who could take me to see things no one else ever has, but he always favored my little brother. The one who was supposed to exist, because I was the accident baby. I shouldn't exist. I just fucking ran, because it seemed like the best thing to do.

"You can berate me all you want because you think I was stupid to come here or run away at all or whatever else. I might not have started out so great, and I know I'd be dead if you hadn't come along and saved me. I get that. But the fact is, how many people do you think would have been brave enough to run? Brave enough to run away to somewhere unknown and unprotected? That's what I did, and I stand by that decision."

YX-43 Rick was quiet when as he absorbed her words. There was even a brief lapse in time when his hands stopped going over all of the pieces of the portal gun.

"I guess that makes sense," he muttered, returning half of his focus to the task at his hands. "I mean, I get not feeling like you belong anywhere, but the fact is, the universe is unfathomably big. So really, none of us belong anywhere. But I know what it means to not want to stay somewhere either. It's how I feel about being stuck on this motherfucking planet."

Summer furrowed her brows in confusion. He was stuck here? What?

"After my grandkids died," – she was right – "I had to go before the Council of Ricks," he continued. "I'm sure you know what the Council is; a bunch of fancy-ass me's thinking they can escape government by hiding from government as a fucking government. Fucking idiots.

"But yeah; I had to appeal before them, and it was an argument I didn't win. But how could I? I may be the smartest being in existence, but when you go up against hundreds of other smartest beings in existence, your odds aren't too great.

"In the end, they banished me here, and they left me no way to get off of this planet. They took my portal gun away, and there's no means to make another one here. I've been here for years; you can't even comprehend how annoying being stuck in this place has been."

His voice grew harder and harder as he spoke. His hands grew more and more shaky as he reassembled the pieces before him. And Summer grew more and more anxious; she didn't like the way his face was contorting in anger. It was slightly scary.

"And then _you_ come along, ultimately fucking yourself over because you really didn't think your whole escape plan through, which I guess in the end was good for me after all. I didn't have to save you, you know. But seeing you, _a Summer_ , here…I don't know, and I wanted to know. So there I was, rushing your ass back to this house thinking to myself, 'she must have a portal gun,' only to find out that you threw it away. But–"

He paused, counting over the pieces to himself. Summer watched him as he counted, a slow, ominous feeling spreading in her chest as his silence dragged on.

"All the pieces are here; the irreplaceable ones still in tact and I have spare substitutes for the shit that can be replaced. So I guess saving your life wasn't the worst decision I've ever made."

With that, he stopped talking, letting Summer muse over the words he'd spoken to her. She hadn't realized it before he went on his rant, but there was something off with this Rick. At first, she just thought it had been him being Rick; mean, unforgiving and relentless. But this one was different; this one had some severely unresolved anger issues that he wouldn't explain to her.

And she slowly realized she needed to get away from him.

She gave him three more minutes of silence before she cleared her throat.

"So…" she began, a new feeling of unease having settled over her when YX-43 Rick glared at her sudden disruption. "Can I, uh – am I clear to leave? Like health-wise, can I leave now? Or am I still gonna die if I move around too much?"

She didn't know what kind of answer to expect from him, but his sudden outburst of insane laughter was probably the last thing she could have guessed would have come out.

She started to get the feeling that something was very wrong.

YX-43 Rick looked down at the arranged pieces before him, starting to assemble them into a familiar shape, still laughing.

"You can't leave, Summer," he said in between his fits of laughter. "No now, not later, not ever. You can't leave."

Yep, something was definitely very wrong.

Before she could even ask what he meant by that, his hand slammed down on some kind of button, and metal cuffs surrounded her wrists, her stomach and her neck. She was effectively pinned down onto the table, no hope of breaking free.

Her chest felt incredibly hallow as she stared with wide eyes at YX-43 Rick.

 _Oh shit_.

"What the fuck are you doing?" she choked out, squirming against the restraints.

"Putting together this portal gun so I can finally get the fuck out of here," he replied, dodging the real question she was asking.

"Yeah, no shit!" she barked back at him. "Why the fuck are you keeping me here like this?! You have nothing else to gain from me, so let me leave! Go jump to your stupid other dimensions or whatever, I don't care!"

"You do realize that I have to kill you now, right?" he asked, a dark humorous look on his face as he began clicking pieces together one by one.

Summer's blood turned to ice in her veins.

"Wha–why?"

"See, Summer, here's the thing," YX-43 Rick began, holding a piece out and inspecting it before placing it inside the portal gun. "You know what dimension I'm from and you know the Council of Ricks banished me here. If I were to let you live, and say, somehow, you managed to go to the Council and tell them that I have a working portal gun and escaped the shithole they threw me in…well, it'd be kind of annoying to have to run so much."

"You don't have to kill me," Summer pleaded in a small voice. "I won't tell anyone. I won't."

"Please spare me the crying bullshit, Summer," YX-43 Rick scoffed, halfway through his project. "You would have died out here anyway. Just think of it as speeding up the process. I mean, I probably won't go slow or anything, because where's the fun in that? Think of it as me being merciful, you know? At least I'm not gonna rape you before I kill you or eat your dead body or whatever the fuck's gonna happen to you out there."

Summer watched him with wide, stinging eyes. Blinking back the tears forming, she shook her head; she wouldn't cry. Not in front of this psycho asshole.

The room fell silent, Summer's thoughts racing. How would he murder her? Would it be slow and painful like he promised? Could she sit there and accept it?

Hell no.

He was just restructuring the handle of the portal gun when she looked back over to him. Once it was reassembled, he'd focus on offing her and then making an escape.

And from the speed he was going, she had only a matter of minutes to figure out how to save herself.

* * *

"Thanks for meeting me here, Squanchy," Rick greeted as he stepped out of his ship to meet his friend.

"Yeah, what the squanch ever, Rick," was his reply.

Normally his happy, easy-going cat-alien-friend, Squanchy didn't even look up at Rick when he approached him. His eyes were continuously floating all around them, checking for anything with his claws out.

Rick understood, though. Zenoa wasn't the best place for his ally. There were countless bounty hunters on the planet that would love to nab the reward for turning Squanchy in. No one ever bothered Rick here because, despite his bounty being three times as high, he was the number one weapon supplier on this world. Squanchy, though, avoided this planet like the plague; he hadn't returned since the rebellion.

"So what is this about?" Squanchy asked once he was sure they were alone at Rick's regular landing site. "Why are we here?"

"We're here because we need to find Summer."

Squanchy winced, looking at Rick with a seriousness he'd never seen in his friend before.

"Summer?" he confirmed slowly. "Your granddaughter, Summer? I met her at your party last year? That one?"

Rick nodded, looking around his surroundings. No footprints or any trace of anyone being there. He could see the town in the distance. He knew for a fact Summer was definitely on this planet – despite the lack of evidence – and prayed like hell that's where she had gone.

"What the squanch is she doing here without you, Rick?!" Squanchy demanded, angry. "Did you send her here to run errands for you like you would Morty?"

"I'm not that fucking stupid, Squanchy," Rick barked back, almost angry that his friend would even assume that about him. "She took my portal gun and came here on her own."

"Why?" Squanchy asked, watching Rick rushing around them, trying to gather clues. "She didn't seem stupid when I met her."

Rick pursed his lips, trying to think of how to word a response.

"I don't know why," he settled on. "She's a dumb teenager; she's probably hormonal or on her period or whatever. All I know is we gotta go find her ass and so I can drag it back home. But for now, I need your help, Squanchy. My portal gun isn't online and I can't track like you can. I need you to help me find Summer, and then you can leave."

Squanchy saw right through Rick's answer. He didn't know Summer too well, as they'd only chatted for a few minutes at the party before she'd excused herself to go make a new drink and he'd slipped into the garage. That had been it. But from that short interaction, he knew she wasn't a person reckless enough to come here without a good reason.

And Squanchy knew Rick, because Rick was Squanchy's best friend. He knew that when Rick skirted around issues with words, it was because he didn't want to acknowledge the truth. Like the one time in the middle of fighting, when Squanchy had asked Rick if he missed his daughter, and Rick told him family life was stupid. But Rick kept a picture of an infant Beth in his pocket everywhere he went. There were even times when Squanchy would see him looking at it with something hidden in his eyes.

Squanchy also knew Rick liked to be a hard ass when he was trying to hide his concern. From the way he was dissing Summer while frantically looking around them, he knew Rick was more worried than he had been about anything in years.

All with good reason, too. The cat knew Zenoa was not a good place to be if one wasn't readily suited or prepared to fight off dozens of the galaxy's worst criminals. He didn't know how long Rick's granddaughter had been on Zenoa, but judging from the fact Rick had to take his ship to get there, he'd assumed at least a few hours.

"I think we should head into town," Rick concluded, breaking the silence. "If she's there, someone must have saw her. Maybe you can pick up her scent?"

"Yeah, okay, sounds good," Squanchy agreed. "Got anything of hers I can get her smell on?"

Rick placed his hand in his inner lab coat pocket and produced a tiny bottle of Summer's favorite perfume. Though the scent would have been gone for hours, Squanchy's alien nose could pick up anything from days before. His abilities were a great aid to them during the wars they'd fought together. Squanchy could always tell in advance if enemies had passed by, or were approaching.

He took the bottle, inhaled its scent deeply, and took a long sniff of the air around him. His eyes were closed in complete concentration while Rick's foot tapped impatiently.

"Got it," Squanchy said, pointing towards the town like Rick had predicted. "She definitely was here, and she definitely went that way."

They both hopped in Rick's ship and were silent on the short ride over to Poglix. Squanchy was observing every move Rick made.

His knuckles were pale from his tight grip on the steering wheel. Rick's right foot was pressing the gas petal down as hard as he could while his left leg bounced rapidly from stress. His eyes were hard and cold as he stared straight ahead, while his lips were pressed into a tight line.

Worry was etched all over his face, and he probably didn't even know it.

"Rick," Squanchy said softly.

"Hm?" Rick hummed out, not taking his eyes off of the town in front of them as he landed his ship.

"She'll be okay," Squanchy reassured. "We'll find her."

With those words, Rick let out a breath he didn't even realize he'd been holding. But he still couldn't force any words out of his mouth. So all he did was nod, and Squanchy understood.

Squanchy eventually followed Summer's scent to a lone bench on a dark street, but was surprised when the scent vanished without a trace at that point. Much to Rick's masked anxiety, Squanchy looked him in the eye and told him as much.

They wasted no time walking up and down the streets, Rick producing a picture of Summer and Squanchy speaking fluent alien languages asking if they'd seen her. Every question was met with a no.

It was a frustrating process, and it was dragging out entirely too long. Rick was getting more and more anxious.

After a few more attempts at asking random strangers on the streets and a ton of profanities shouted from and increasingly irritable Rick, they thought they'd try their luck at a well-known bar.

They'd entered the front doors of the tavern side-by-side, looking all around. Their entrance seemed to freeze time however, as all of the noise and action died down as everyone stared at the two in the doorway. Every single person in that place knew who both Rick and Squanchy were. A few even stood up, reaching inside for weapons.

Rick was faster than all of them. In one swift movement, he was standing in front of Squanchy with his own laser pistol held out in front of him, switching aim between all those who'd been stupid enough to stand up in the first place.

"He's with me," Rick announced, glaring. "If any of you want to try anything, you'll have a plasma beam through your brain before you can finish the thought, so sit your asses down and listen up."

From behind, Squanchy exhaled quietly as all of the bounty hunters before them reluctantly sat down, putting their guns away and muttering curses at Rick. They knew better than to take on Rick Sanchez.

Keeping his pistol out in front of them, he used his free hand to pull out Summer's picture again and showing it to everyone.

"We're looking for this human girl," Rick announced, moving the picture back and fourth in front of him slowly so everyone could see it. "Have any of you seen her?"

Squanchy repeated his words several times, in several different languages. The bar stayed silent as they all looked over the image. Rick could feel his finger closing slightly around the trigger in frustration. He was running out of options here; he had no idea where Summer was, and the thoughts he'd been trying to keep down were slowly starting to surface.

 _What if she's_ …

And then, there was a miracle; there was a movement.

One small blob alien scooted up towards them. Rick immediately pointed his gun down at the creature, but the blob kept his hands raised as he approached. When Rick determined there was no threat, he lowered his laser and motioned for the alien to approach.

The alien took a hard look at the picture, and then shifted his gaze back to Rick. Much to Rick's confusion, the alien repeated the process several times before finally settling on Rick.

"You're looking for this girl?" the alien asked, sounding just as confused as Rick felt.

"Yes," Squanchy replied in Rick's silence. "Have you seen her?"

"I mean, I saw you with her a few hours ago," the alien tilted his head, once again looking at Summer's picture. "The poor kid fainted and you were carrying her away."

"What the fuck are you talking about?" Rick asked. "I just got here, I wasn't with her. That–that–that wasn't me."

"Yes it was," the alien replied. "I saw you. You were holding her in your arms and you ran past me on that corner over there."

He pointed out the doors to a corner down the street. Rick and Squanchy turned to look back.

Rick was lost. On one hand, he was completely elated to have found someone who had apparently seen Summer. But on the other hand, he didn't know how he could trust this weird-ass creature. He hadn't been on Zenoa in over three weeks; there's no way he was there hours before.

Just as he was turning back to deny the alien's claim yet again, something clicked. There was a memory trying to force itself through Rick's brain; a feint recollection of something that he recalled from years back.

Something about a rogue Rick being banished form his dimension and all other dimensions for unspeakable crimes. The Council of Ricks didn't believe in executing a Rick, because that was an easy way out. The most horrible punishment a Rick could receive was being trapped somewhere with no ways to escape or leave. Taking away a Rick's portal gun and his ability to get anywhere else was a far more cruel punishment.

Rick, along with every other Rick from every timeline, had been sent a message from the Council, explaining just what this Rick had done and what had been done to him.

He had been banished and left stranded on Dimension C-137's Zenoa, because it was one of the most notoriously horrible places in any of the infinite timelines.

 _Fuck._

Fuck. Fuck. Fuck. Fuck. Fuck. Fuck. Fuck.

FUCK.

Without warning, Rick grabbed the blob by what he assumed was his neck and yanked him close. Squanchy jumped at the sudden change in Rick's behavior.

"Where the fuck did they run?" Rick demanded with a ferocity Squanchy had never seen come from his friend. "What fucking direction did they go in? Tell me right fucking now."

Wide-eyed, the alien raised a shaky finger and pointed down the road.

Rick released the blob as quickly as he'd grabbed him and threw him back a few feet, grabbing Squanchy by the arm and sprinting out the door before Squanchy could even blink.

"Rick, what the squanch is going on?!" Squanchy asked, running along with Rick's long strides.

"Squanchy, I don't have a lot of time to explain the whole backstory, but my granddaughter is about to fucking die."


	7. Confrontation

**Author's notes:**  
\- So, this chapter's gonna be graphic and violent as hell. Just a heads up. If torture and violence aren't your thing, turn back now.

* * *

"Now let's test the effects of sudden hypothermic quadric freezing on the skin," YX-43 Rick smiled.

Summer could barely hear what he was saying. She couldn't focus on anything really; not with the horrific pain that swallowed her entire body. When YX-43 Rick had finished reassembling the portal gun, he'd wasted no time in beginning to torture her. Her entire body was covered in sweat, bruises and blood, among other things.

She didn't know how long it had been going on for at that point, but it had felt like an eternity.

Initially, he'd started slow. The first bit of pain she'd endured came from a small laser that he'd drawn shapes on her body with. The powerful beam burned her flesh and made her feel like she was on fire.

Her lungs wanted to collapse with how much and how loudly she'd screamed. All it earned her was a hard slap across the face from YX-43 Rick's hand.

"Oh my God, shut the fuck up!" he'd yelled at her. "You're annoying the fuck out of me and no one can hear you; these walls are sound proof."

She couldn't stop it though; with wave after wave of pain relentlessly coming, new screams tore from her bleeding lips, all of which were rewarded with more slaps.

When he got bored with the laser, he'd moved on to other horrific experiments. He'd placed a gravity field generator over her legs, and turned it onto one of the highest levels it was capable of reaching. The pressure from the invisible force crushed the bones beneath them, and she'd screamed every profanity in the English language at least six times – she didn't know, because couldn't actually count – when it hit her.

YX-43 Rick had covered just about every thing he could have to torture her, and then some. He'd dripped acid on her, injected her with chemicals that almost made her choke on vomit, even stabbed her with sharp objects lying around just because he could.

"WHY ARE YOU DOING THIS?!" she'd choked through her sobs.

"BECAUSE YOU'RE THE REASON I'M HERE!" he laughed manically back as he'd began a new wave of punishment.

Summer didn't have time to dwell on whatever he meant by that. The only thing in the world she could focus on through the pain was wondering just how much longer her body could stand before it would give up and she would finally die.

Through her horrendous sobbing and ragged breathing, she could hear something charging up and a portion of her shirt raised, exposing her bare stomach. She shook violently against her restraints, not recovered enough from the last set of pain. YX-43 Rick only smiled darkly as he shoved some kind of device down onto her pale, flat stomach.

The cold that rocked through her entire burning body forced another scream through her mouth. It burned her in ways she'd never felt before. Despite having no strength left in her, her torso jerked against the metal band holding her down. After a few moments, when he'd removed whatever that God-awful device from her body, her entire stomach was dark purple and blue; signs of the instant frostbite from hell she'd received.

"Hm," YX-43 Rick mused to himself. "Interesting colors here; I expected it to be darker than this."

He extended his pointer finger inside a glove and shoved it down onto the damaged area. Her skin tore in response, blood dripping out of the hole. She let out a cry through gritted teeth and tears.

What had she done to deserve this? And why was her body still trying to stay alive? Why couldn't she just die and get this over with?

YX-43 Rick looked to her face, a proud and evil smirk painted there as he observed her expression twisted in undeniable hurt.

"Was that too cold for you, Summer?" he mocked, enjoying every second of the trauma he was inflicting upon her. "Here, I'll fix that."

She didn't know when he'd began to boil whatever liquid it was when he poured it all over her, but she did know it was the worst pain of all. She couldn't even force herself to scream anymore; her mouth hung limp as she exhaled a breath she couldn't get back.

Black and white spots started to cancel out her sight. The dots danced along in her eyes, and she could finally feel a fading sense. It was starting to hurt less. By no means was she free from the pain, but in the tips of her toes and her fingers, Summer began to feel a numbness.

Disappointed from the lack of screaming, YX-43 Rick saw the signs of Summer's body finally starting to give in when he'd poured the last of the boiling contents from the vile onto her. Such a shame; it hadn't lasted nearly as long as he would have liked.

But all good things must come to an end, he supposed. And once this was done, he could get the fuck out of there and go off to do what ever he wanted to do.

The prospect of his impending escape fresh in his mind, he decided he was suddenly very bored with the dying girl on the table before him.

He'd retrieved his faithful laser pistol from the table, along with the finished and charged portal gun. Summer could barely keep his face in focus as he stood above her. All she could do was concentrate on breathing.

YX-43 Rick flipped the switch on his laser gun, letting it charge up as he eyed her body. He wanted to pick the perfect spot for his target. The headshot would have been boring, way too predictable and easy for him. The heart was a little more dramatic; he'd broken every other part of her. Why not end it all there?

"Well, Summer, it's been fun," he said. "But I've got to be going now. Thanks for the portal gun, really. It–it–it's gonna get me to a lot of places and–"

He never finished his sentence; it was cut off by the sound of the door flying off of its hinges and crashing onto the floor.

YX-43 Rick immediately looked up, pointing his weapon towards the sound of the invasion.

His lip twitched at the sight of C-137 Rick, and a small cat alien at his side, claws out and foaming at the mouth.

C-137 Rick looked absolutely and terrifyingly furious.

* * *

The second they'd left the bar, Rick grabbed Squanchy and pulled him in close.

"Get my scent," he ordered. "Track my scent."

Squanchy looked completely lost but did as he was told. He inhaled the scent of Rick: alcohol and oil among other nameless chemicals, it was completely unique. And to his surprise, Squanchy actually found an extremely similar scent in the air.

"That way," he said with absolute certainty.

So they were back to running. Rick was muttering countless curses between his huffed breaths and preparing his laser pistol in his hands once again. Squanchy was leading the way.

They'd made their way to the edge of the small town, where small buildings were becoming fewer and more uncommon. Squanchy knew that meant whoever they were looking for was hell bent on hiding.

"Rick, what are we getting into?" Squanchy asked. "I need to know so I don't squanching die here."

"Isn't it obvious, Squanch?" Rick replied, eyeing the abandoned buildings as they ran past them. "It's another me; we're looking for another me."

"But why is that a bad thing?" Squanchy needed more of an answer; he knew Rick was avoiding some major truth. "Why would it be a bad thing if Summer was with an alternate you? She's still his granddaughter, so shouldn't that be a good thing?"

Few things in the entire multiverse could ever shake Rick; he'd been things no one should ever see, and he'd been shaken to his core enough times in his travels to numb him from anything disturbing. In truth, Rick knew very little about the things YX-43 Rick had done to banish himself. The Council of Ricks had disclosed a very long and specific list of his crimes to every Rick, of course. But after getting through a few bullet points on the list, Rick couldn't read anymore, and he'd burned the letter in complete and utter revulsion.

"This Rick isn't like me or the other Ricks," he explained. "He's done _a lot_ of shit, Squanch; enough to force the Council of me's that I told you about to banish him here."

That was it? That was all Rick was going to say? Squanchy wanted more than that. Knowing that they'd be up against a Rick was enough to tell Squanchy how to prepare for this fight, but he wanted to know more about why they had to go against him at all.

Still, Squanchy also knew that if Rick Sanchez seemed disturbed by the thought of this guy, it wasn't good.

So he didn't press the issue.

Squanchy led Rick and followed the scent until they were staring at the front of the farthest building away. It looked dark and run down, and neither of them could see through the windows of the house. To say the house looked ominous was an understatement; Squanchy could feel his fur standing on edge, which was odd considering he rarely felt fear.

The air around them was still and silent. There were no signs that this house was any different than the others they'd passed on their mad sprint here. Rick looked down at Squanchy, questioning. Squanchy only nodded his head; he knew they were in the right place.

The affirmation was all Rick needed. Before he even knew what he was doing, his foot slammed into the door, a satisfying cracking noise vibrating around him as the broken wood fell into house and crashed on the ground, splintering.

There were pros and cons to having the smartest brain in all of existence. One pro was that Rick had the ability to process information faster than most anyone else did. The con was that some of the things he registered so quickly were things he'd wished he could never see.

His gun was raised up before Squanchy could even gasp from beside him.

In the center of the room was Summer, his granddaughter, strapped down onto a metal table and convulsing like he'd never seen. His eyes darted from her feet to her head, then back over and over again. She was battered and broken; both fresh and dry blood stained her pale and sweaty skin that was decorated with blossoming bruises. Her legs were bent in the oddest of ways, and her chest heaved with exhaustion and trauma.

Rick had seen so many friends and allies die by his side in battles and escapes. He'd seen the most graphic of crime scenes and the worst of the worst when it came to pain and torment.

And yet, at the sight of Summer so hurt and so broken, it was like he was seeing it for the first time.

It took his breath away while simultaneously forcing a snarl through his clenched teeth.

When Squanchy gasped beside him, it broke his fixation on his granddaughter's state. His eyes flew up, staring into the cold, dead ones of YX-43 Rick, who had a gun pointed right back at him. It took Rick less that a millisecond to deduce that he was the one who had done this.

He observed his alternate self just like he had Summer; he analyzed him. He could see the little blood drip stains from the injuries he'd inflicted upon her. His grip on his own pistol tightened.

They stayed like that, staring at one another in an intense silence for only ten seconds, but to Rick, it felt like an eternity.

"Back the fuck up, _now_ ," Rick ordered, breaking the silence and readying himself for anything.


	8. Words

YX-43 Rick didn't react to Rick's command. He stayed glued in place, standing over Summer and aiming his gun back at his alternate self.

"I said back the fuck up, _NOW_ ," Rick demanded again, his finger pulling the trigger back slightly.

The gun in Rick's hand made a humming noise, as it charged up the laser preparing to fire. YX-43 Rick just smiled in response, raising an eyebrow.

He was the one closer to Summer. He was the one who controlled the situation. Rick knew this, but he didn't show it.

"Well, well, well…" YX-43 Rick chuckled darkly. "If it isn't the infamous C-137 Rick. I gotta say, I'm a little star struck. The Council of Ricks was always talking about you…"

"I'm not gonna tell you again," Rick ignored him. "Back up _now_ or I'm gonna blow your fucking head off where you stand."

YX-43 Rick saw that Rick knew he was in a bind. No longer feeling the threat, he lowered his gun, and put his hands on the table next to Summer.

"Geez, C-137, isn't that a little violent in the presence of your granddaughter?" YX-43 Rick asked, using his hands to display the body on the table.

Summer could barely register what was happening. She was fading in and out of the world around her. All she knew was that the new waves of pain had stopped, but YX-43 Rick was still over her. And she didn't know when the pain would start again. She began hyperventilating trying to calm her own body, convulsions rocking her entire being.

Rick flinched. Squanchy took a small, shaky step forward. YX-43 Rick smirked again.

"Seems the poor thing is going into shock," YX-43 Rick looked down. "Should I end it now while you watch, Rick?"

"No," Rick's response was immediate and rough. "No."

YX-43 Rick only laughed harder, and Rick could barely take it. The sick fucker was enjoying every second of this, but he couldn't dwell on it. He had to get to Summer; he had to stabilize her and made sure she was okay. Her body couldn't handle that much abuse for too much longer.

"So let me tell you how this is gonna work, Rick," YX-43 Rick began, reaching inside of his lab coat.

"You ain't gonna tell me shit," Rick called back.

"Well, that's you're choice," YX-43 Rick said, amused. "You can either listen to me or not, I don't care."

When YX-43 Rick pulled his hand out of his pocket, Rick's jaw could have hit the floor. Ice formed in the pit of his stomach as he recognized the faint green glow. There, in YX-43's hand, was a portal gun; _his_ portal gun.

 _Oh fuck_.

"Your lovely Summer, here, was kind enough to bring this portal gun to my attention," he began. "So I'm gonna portal out of this fucking dimension, and you're never going to see me again."

"You think I'm just gonna let you leave after all this?" Rick scoffed. "Try again, pal."

"Like you actually give a fuck, C-137," YX-43 Rick replied, looking down at the portal gun and browsing through some coordinates.

Summer coughed, choking up a small bit of blood that made Rick's stomach twist uncomfortably. To his side, he could hear Squanchy hiss. Both of them were ready to take the fucker down, but with him so close to Summer with a loaded gun, neither of them were allowed to move. Not yet.

Rick bided his time.

"What the fuck does that mean?" Rick demanded.

"You know what it means," YX-43 said, suddenly very disinterested in the scene before him.

The excitement of the moment was finally hitting him. After years of waiting, he was finally getting off of this horrible planet and out of this God-forbidden dimension.

Rick stood there, watching. He bit the inside of his cheek. At that point, he decided he didn't care whether or not YX-43 Rick left with his portal gun. He just wanted him to get away from Summer so he could get to her.

With another cough, and a bit more blood, Rick's hands started shaking.

"As much as I'd love to stay and fuck up this piece of shit even more," he paused, his hands gesturing to Summer on the table again. "I must be on my way. She won't make it any way, not with all the things I did to her."

That did it, something snapped. Rick lost all logic and reason in the red rage that he saw. He fired his pistol, effectively hitting YX-43 Rick in the shoulder.

 _Fuck_ , Rick thought. He'd been aiming for his chest.

Squanchy jumped, not prepared for the sudden outburst. He'd never seen Rick Sanchez lose his cool for anything.

"SON OF A BITCH!" YX-43 Rick roared, his shoulder burning from the shot.

It all happened so quickly, Rick and Squanchy barely had time to react. YX-43 Rick began firing off at them like crazy, forcing Rick and Squanchy to dodge, ducking for cover behind machines to their sides. He mashed buttons on the portal gun, and fired a green light.

He stopped for half a second to appreciate his portal behind him. He didn't know where it would lead, but he decided with an injured shoulder, anywhere was better than being there.

He backed slowly towards the portal behind him, continuously shooting lasers in every direction.

Rick peaked out from behind the machine, and saw him slowly making his way to the escape. It was all down to this, he had one chance to get this right. He took a deep breath, steadying his shaking hands to take aim.

But before he could get his shot off, a blood-curdling scream came from Summer on the table.

One of YX-43's stray shots had hit Summer in the side, blood pouring from her hip.

The shock from the scream forced Rick's finger to squeeze the trigger. Somehow, the shot managed to his its mark. The laser pistol in YX-43 Rick's hand shattered into pieces, and burning his hand in the process.

Seeing no other options, YX-43 Rick turned his back to them and flung himself through the portal.

Rick blinked, and snarled.

He jumped over his cover in front of him and darted full speed towards that portal, throwing himself through it before it could close.

"SQUANCHY, TAKE CARE OF SUMMER!" he had screamed before he disappeared into another world just as the portal closed.

Squanchy, already on his feet, ran to the table, examining Summer. He'd spent a long time as a field medic in the rebellion when there were none around. He'd learned medicines and cures and how to patch up wounds. Squanchy had done this more times that he could count.

But the hole in Summer's side, spilling blood frightened him. He looked at her unseeing eyes, bloodshot and full of tears.

 _Squanch…_

He wasted no more time, running around the room, gathering what he could use and praying his years of training would save both his ass, and hers.

* * *

When YX-43 Rick had jumped through the portal, he didn't exactly have expectations on what he would see or where he would end up. He didn't monitor what he was punching into the portal gun in his need to make a hasty escape.

What YX-43 Rick didn't expect was to be met with the face of a brick wall, clearly at the end of some random ass dark alley.

"Shit," he breathed through the pain in his shoulder and hands.

He considered using the portal gun to get out of there and jump somewhere new, but if this portal gun was like his old one, which he knew it was after putting it back together, it only had a limited charge. He couldn't gamble with however many he had left on the thing; he'd have to chance it and just run.

He turned around, planning to escape through the mouth of the alley, when he was met with C-137 Rick jumping through the closing portal, gun still in hand.

And in that instant, YX-43 Rick knew with every fiber of his being that it was over. Should he open another portal, Rick would follow him through it. His long-awaited escape led to mere seconds of freedom. How unfortunate.

Yet he wouldn't give in; just because he'd lost didn't mean he couldn't get his few shots in.

"Well hello, Rick," he greet, planting a tight smile on his face. "Welcome to–" he paused, looked down on the portal gun's screen. "Dimension RG Beta 21."

"You seriously need to wipe that creepy-ass smile off your face," Rick seethed. "It's over, you piece of filth."

"Over for me or over for your granddaughter?" YX-43 Rick asked, keeping his features bright.

Rick stiffened.

" _You_ ," he replied slowly, dangerously. "For all that shit you did to her, I'm going to do it to you, but one hundred times as horrible."

He meant every word. Rick was going to brutally murder this motherfucker, and then find a way to bring him back to life, so he could murder him again. Maybe he could clone him, and kill dozens of him or until he got over it.

But the thought paused in his mind; he could torture this monster all he wanted, and it would never feel like enough of a punishment for what he had done to Summer.

"Oh c'mon, C-137," YX-43 Rick drawled. "Don't act like I'm the only bad guy here. You're just as guilty as I am."

Rick gaped. He could have laughed at the absurdity had the moment not been so serious. Was this guy really this insane? Granted, yes, he was evidently fucked up in the head far more than any individual in the cosmos, but what in the ever-loving fuck could bring him to that conclusion?

"Don't stand there and look like you don't know what I mean," YX-43 Rick laughed, snarky as hell. "You fucked her up more than I did."

"Please do explain," Rick challenged. "But try to keep it under 30 seconds because that's about the longest time estimate I can give you for your life expectancy."

YX-43 Rick cocked an eyebrow, and Rick the only thing he wanted more in that moment than pulling the trigger was a chance to try to understand the utter insanity that was his claim.

"Tell me, C-137," YX-43 Rick began slowly, darkly. "Why was Summer even on Zenoa in the first place?"

 _…Oh._

Oh.

Shit.

He couldn't force his lips to move. He couldn't force his brain to think of a witty response. He couldn't even deny what the other Rick had said. And it drove him crazy to no end that he realized that the fucker was right.

YX-43 Rick took full advantage of the silence his question was met with.

"Aren't we Ricks supposed to be the most intelligent beings in existence?" he continued. "I mean, I assume you could at least figure out why she ran away in the first place."

Yeah, Rick knew. He'd spent the whole travel time to Zenoa figuring it out. The feelings he'd felt with that realization were similar to how he was feeling now, but he'd buried them one he made it to the planet, knowing he had to find Summer and that he could feel shit later.

One trigger pull; that was all it would take to shut this asshole up and end this. Just one little trigger pull…and yet, for some reason, Rick couldn't do it. All he could do was stay there, glued in place with his chest feeling hallow and his blood cold. His teeth gnashed against each other roughly.

And that motherfucker wouldn't stop smiling the whole Goddamn time he spoke.

"She told me all about it, C-137," YX-43 Rick spoke evenly, slowly, making sure Rick could process every word. "How none of you give a shit about her; how you never have. How she shouldn't exist in this dimension because she was our daughter's prom night knock up.

"So there she is, trying to find a way in a world where she doesn't belong. She didn't feel wanted or loved, because she knew she was nothing. And just picture this: for a while, it's the same for Morty, and she can share some abandonment and detachment issues with him, because their parents don't pay all that much attention to him either. But who shows up after a 20-year absence? And who takes her little brother, her only real friend away from all of that? Who brings him to different places and times and gives him attention but spares little to none for her? You.

"You can try to convince yourself that this is Beth and Jerry's fault, sure. To be fair, some of it is. But you're a bigger part of the problem, C-137. You never spared her so much as a second thought, and look what it's led to.

"But it goes even deeper than that! Her parents fight constantly, and where do you think that comes from? It's a cycle you created, Rick; a vicious cycle. You hurt your daughter when she was young, and that pain was ingrained in Beth. You left her and her mother and now she hurts her own daughter because it's how she was raised. It all leads back to you. You've hurt Summer more than anyone else.

"She ran away because of you. She was almost killed and eaten hours ago because of you. She crossed paths with me because of you. And she's going to die because of you.

"So don't you fucking stand there, all high and mighty, thinking that blood, this blood –" YX-43 rick gestured to the stains on his lab coat. "wasn't shed because you're the worst. In the end, I was giving her what she wanted; an escape. I was going to end her problems by ending her existence, so I guess that means I'm the good guy. The antihero, and you're just the piece of shit that drove her to want to–"

YX-43 Rick never finished the sentence. He'd never finish any sentence ever again.

In that moment, Rick found it in himself to pull the trigger, a gross-and-weird splattering noise sounding off in the alley as his brains painted the dead end wall behind him.

The portal gun fell to the ground as YX-43 Rick's body crumpled. Rick couldn't approach right away, though. And it didn't feel as satisfactory to kill the bastard as he hoped it would; as he wanted it to. Rick stood there for a few minutes, laser pistol at his side and looking at the blood slowly trickling down the wall.

Rick could feel his brain in overdrive, processing thousands of thoughts within seconds, but he couldn't hear them. He felt like he was trapped inside a soundproof bubble. And it bothered him.

It bothered him that he couldn't feel proud about killing this sick monster that lie beneath his feet. It bothered him that he would have to go back and face the mess he'd unintentionally created. It bothered him that he couldn't force his fucking body to move.

So he stood there, numb and cold, for a few minutes, trying to find some sense of peace and knowing full well that he wouldn't until he faced his demons down.

He had to convince himself he wasn't as horrible as YX-43 Rick had made him out to be. He had to tell himself he wasn't that sick and he wasn't the one who physically beat Summer to near death. He had to find a way to get her to forgive him.

And then he realized that was all that mattered at that point.

He couldn't ever justify himself until she gave him the permission to.

Eventually – he didn't know how long it'd been – he forced himself to bend over and retrieve his portal gun from the ground. Looking down briefly at YX-43 Rick.

"See you in hell," was all he said.

He fired out a portal to take him back to Squanchy and his granddaughter, while bookmarking his coordinates in that alley as well. He knew the Council would eventually find out and want to know all the details, but he wasn't worried about it, though. The Council knew what YX-43 Rick had done and how twisted he was. Though killing Ricks was considered one of the highest levels of terrorism in their society, they'd understand this instance.

Stepping through the portal, Rick saw Squanchy wrapping up a part of her left arm. He was immensely relieved to see her sitting up on the table and looking better than when he left; he knew he could rely on Squanchy to take care of her while he was gone. She seemed totally aware, and though she still looked like a train had run her over six times, that was a huge step.

Calmness was key when taking care of injuries.

Their eyes shot up to Rick as he stepped through the portal. Summer instantly cringed, and tried to jerk away from him. Her eyes were in a frenzy and she looked down to Squanchy. A shriek escaped her lips as the movement jostled her legs, pain spiking through her body. Rick put his portal gun in his lab coat and held his hands up, showing her he wasn't armed with anything.

"It's me," Rick said calmly, knowing she'd understand.

And she did understand; she knew instantly that this was her Rick and that he wasn't going to hurt her. She visibly relaxed slightly, leaning back but still keeping her eyes on him as he cautiously approached, one slow step at a time.

"Well I cleaned out all of the open wounds and patched up everything I could," Squanchy looked to him as he finished tying the wrap around her arm. "Not sure what I'm gonna do about the legs, though. I need to look around and see if there's anything here I can use."

"Uh huh," was all Rick said, not taking his eyes off Summer's while she kept her eyes on his; tears were pooling in her eyes.

Squanchy stepped to the side. In a matter of seconds, Rick closed the small gap between Summer and himself, and he was standing right in front of her. He wasn't sure what expression was on his face, but if it was anything like he was feeling, it was a fuckfest of sadness.

And he hugged her.

He carefully threw his arms around her shoulders and pulled her to him, glaring down at the floor behind her. When he realized she was shaking, he had to close his eyes because some kind of weird burn was festering in them; one he wasn't entirely familiar with.

"G–Grandpa Ri–"

"Shut up," he barked, gripping her more tightly. "Just shut the fuck up, please."

They stayed like that for a while, neither of them saying anything. At one point, shivers and sobs began rocking Summer's body and she wrapped her arms around Rick, hugging him for dear life, like if she let go, something horrible would happen. Neither of them cared about the tears that were probably staining his lab coat.

Squancy could see the tears streaming down Rick's face. He chose not to say anything.


	9. Silence

**Author's notes:**  
\- SO SORRY that this took so long to come out. I live in Louisiana, so the flooding kinda disrupted my entire schedule.  
\- On top of that, I had to move into my new apartment and school started. It's been a crazy two weeks.  
\- Still deciding if I want to further this with another story. It all depends on my sanity, which is slowly deteriorating with school.

* * *

It was quiet in the house while Rick sat; for that, he was thankful. And annoyed.

After Rick and Summer had let go, and she'd stopped hysterically crying, a silence fell over the three of them. Rick started looking around for chemicals to mix; he was fairly certain he knew how to replicate the broken-leg serum he'd gotten for Morty that one time, and that YX-43 Rick had to have kept the proper components in the house.

So Rick sat down at the desk and started mixing things.

Summer wasn't watching him. She stared at the ceiling quietly, utterly sore and exhausted from everything that had happened to her. Out of the corner of her eyes, she saw Squanchy hand Rick beakers and listened as he asked Squanchy to see if there was any other chemicals she couldn't hope to remember the name of lying around as well.

Eventually, she felt her body giving out on her, and she slipped into a dark, uneasy sleep.

Rick looked up at her every few minutes, just to make sure she was okay. When he saw she was asleep, he paid even more attention. There were occasional moans and twitches from her sleeping form that concerned him.

Once he'd seemed satisfied he'd gotten the medicine right, he opened a portal for Squanchy to get back to his ship and fly back to pick them up. He would have gone himself, but he wanted to be there incase Summer woke up.

And he wanted her to get some rest; she needed it horribly.

"Just let it squanch for 20 minutes," Squanchy instructed, looking back at Rick as he walked towards the portal. "I'll be back with your ship soon."

Rick nodded, tossing the keys silently to his friend while pouring the mixture he'd made into a syringe and putting it on the desk to rest.

Before he knew it, Squanchy was gone and the portal was closed. It was quiet.

He was relieved he didn't have to hear Summer cry anymore, because while she was earlier, it felt like he was being punched in the stomach.

He was thankful for the quiet, because he knew it would be gone all too soon.

Approaching the 20-minute mark, he found himself unable to look at Summer anymore. Although she was alive, because he spent a better part of that day thinking she wasn't, seeing her so roughed up didn't help him feel any better. His vision was locked on the table before him, trying to ignore the unconscious sounds of distress coming from the table a few feet away from him.

Summer was tossing and turning; whatever she was seeing in her dreams the obvious cause. Out of instinct, Rick looked back over to her when a weeping noise spread through the air. A layer of sweat began to shine on her face and Rick shot up; sweat and open wounds could lead to possible infection. He was only capable of healing broken legs at this point; he had no idea how to make the bruises fade or the cuts close…or to assuage the mental trauma. And he needed to figure that out, because he couldn't bring Summer home in the state she was in.

So fighting off infections would only add to the list of overly-extended problems he didn't need.

He approached her, trying to determine the best way to wake her up gently. When she twitched again, her legs flailed on the table, and her eyes shot open with pain. She gasped in excruciation.

When her eyes focused on Rick's face, panic overtook her features.

Rick threw his hands up and quickly stepped back, knowing a scream was coming.

"It's me, it's me, it's me!" he chanted quickly. "It's not him, it's me, Summer. It's Grandpa Rick. It's me."

Summer's lips quivered and there was a doubt in her eyes. Logically, she knew it was her grandfather, because reality slowly started to come back to her. But looking at him wasn't any easier. But she kept her lips pressed shut and nodded, obviously shaking.

Rick sighed to himself, relieved and annoyed all at once. This was going to take a long time to get past. But the scream wasn't coming, and that was a good first step.

It was still quiet, and suddenly, Rick wasn't a fan of the absence of noise any more.

"So, I can fix your legs right now," Rick commented, needing to fill the silence. "It's this medicine from a really advanced dimension. I had to go there once for Morty; really crazy place. They're so advanced, they don't–don't age; it's fascinating, and they have this broken leg serum that they sell. It works really well. I used it and then I figured out how it–it–it's made. Really simple, honestly; I can't believe I never thought of it before…but then again, I never needed it before I started bringing Morty along and–"

He was rambling. What the fuck? Rick _never_ rambled. So why was he doing it now? He shut up instantly; he hated it when Morty rambled on during their adventures. He didn't want to do it, either. Maybe it's because she wasn't responding?

But she didn't say anything. She stayed completely silent. And Rick was looking back at the table, unable to look her in the eyes for some reason.

"So, um…I guess I'll just get that for you," he said quietly, praying to a God he didn't believe in she would say something.

Still nothing.

Rick pursed his lips as he retrieved the syringe from the desk. He flicked the needle a few times just for good measure, and made sure he was slow in his movements. He held up the syringe for her to see, just so it wouldn't be a surprise.

She flinched, and though it was a small reaction, he didn't miss the movement. But she _did_ flinch, and he wanted to kill YX-43 Rick all over again.

Summer was not afraid of needles; she never had been. Rick knew this from the days he would dimension hop just to check on his daughter and his grandkids while they grew up. There was one distinct day when he observed Beth bringing them both to get flu shots, which were stupid. The body was built to sustain itself enough to fight off such a minuscule sickness. Flu shots were just another way to make money off of stupid people.

But that was beside the point; he remembered watching Summer simply shrug while the needle made its way into her vein, and he remembered feeling like he was going to lose his hearing because of how much and how loud Morty cried.

If a single little needle was going to freak her out as much as this one did, she was going to need a lot of therapy. Rick thought he'd need it as well just from the amount of sanity he was losing sitting there in the quiet.

She sucked in a hard breath as Rick injected the medicine into her left leg, and both watched as the legs snapped and shifted back into perfect straightness, showing no signs of ever being broken. And she seemed to loosen up a little as the pain from the broken bones left her body.

She was shifting around to test her legs when Rick's hand shot to her shoulder, holding her n place, but retracted his hand immediately as if he'd been burned when his action was met with a small shriek.

Yep, definitely a lot of therapy.

"Just let that settle for a few seconds before you, uh, move around too much," he said quietly, walking back to the other side of the room to give her the distance she clearly needed, because she was about to be crammed in a spaceship next to him for four hours.

She nodded and slumped back onto the table.

And the quiet yet again continued; Rick didn't know how much more he could take. His fists were balled at his sides as he glared at the table, musing.

He thought back to how he would have handled this situation two years ago. He would have told Summer to suck it up and get over this shit because it was stupid and annoying. Emotions were such stupid, pointless things to him back them.

But here he was, feeling countless things, each more overwhelming than the last.

He felt sadness at what had happened to Summer. He felt rage at not torturing YX-43 Rick to death. He felt guilt that he was part of what drove her here, to face this horrible pain. He felt misery that she hadn't forgiven him yet. He felt things he couldn't even put a name to.

It was insane; to know that being and reconnecting with his family had changed him this much. But it was even more insane to know that he truly, deep down, didn't mind that he was like this now; that he had grown to love his family so much, that he didn't mind feeling like shit for them.

The sentimentality was so new to him, and he didn't know what would come next. What, was he going to do something noble like sacrificing himself for them? Seriously, fuck that…right?

Hearing the sounds of his ship landing outside was the most glorious and frightening noise in the world. On one hand, it meant they were finally leaving. One the other hand, it meant finally having the conversation with Summer he didn't know how to start.

Should he apologize first? Should he scold her for thinking she was unwanted? Should he beg her to forgive how much of a shitty person he had been?

He didn't know, and as Squanchy walked through the door of the house and Summer rose to stand, he realized he only had five minutes to figure it out.


	10. The Road Home

**Author's note:** I know I suck, and that this chapter took way too long to come out to wrap this story up. I really didn't expect to be this busy after school started back up…but with full time status, a job and an internship…I guess I can't be all that shocked. Hopefully the length of this will make up for it.

Thanks to everyone who followed a long and waited it out. You guys rock.

* * *

There wasn't a string of words that could describe how shitty Rick's day had been, and the fact that it seemed like it was finally over was more mind-blowing than any Kalaxian Crystal high he'd ever experienced.

Rick was never one who had trouble processing the world around him, but as he stepped out of YX-43 Rick's house, Summer quietly in toe, he found his eyes scanning his surroundings, trying to convince himself he was having some sick, alcohol-induced nightmare.

Summer kept her arms wrapped tightly around herself and her eyes down as she followed her grandfather through the threshold and exited the house. She didn't want to see any more of this world and, more than anything, she just wanted to forget all that had happened. But she knew that would be impossible, and all she could do was put one foot in front of the other on a journey back home.

She didn't notice when Rick had stopped in front of her to talk to Squanchy, and ended up crashing into him and losing her balance.

Out of the corner of his eye, Rick could see her starting to go down. As she stumbled backwards, he wheeled around and grabbed her, not about to let her fall.

There was a moment when their eyes connected, and she hissed when he touched her skin. Rick couldn't tell if it was his grip possibly hurting her injuries, or just reacting to seeing his face; the same face of someone who had done horrible things to her. Regardless, he steadied her and let go, giving her some space.

Squancy watched the scene before him unfold with a sadness, and he didn't attempt to involve himself at all. He could tell that this was something Rick would have to handle on his own.

Summer blinked a few times and took a deep breath to calm herself, the bruises on her sore body throbbing. She knew the whole thing was over; she knew she shouldn't be this jumpy. She was already the lowest of the low in the eyes of who she was with, and she although she had nothing to lose, she didn't want to appear any weaker.

She stepped around Rick and faced Squanchy.

"Thank you," she said, her voice low and unsure.

"Squanch, Summer, don't thank me," Squanchy tried to reassure her, his voice soft.

Rick watched her face as she pursed her lips, unsure of what o say next and what her next move was going to be. She slowly turned her gaze up to face him, questioning.

"It's unlocked," was all he said to her.

She nodded, threw another quick 'thank you' at Squancy, and walked to the ship, taking the shotgun seat and closing the door quickly behind her. Rick heard the click of the lock button.

He frowned and looked to Squanchy.

"Uh," he tried to think of something to say.

"Don't squanch about it, Rick, she's been through a lot today," Squanchy shrugged it off. "Getting her home to rest and recover is the best thing for her."

"I can't bring her home looking like that, though, Squanchy," Rick mused. "I thought about it while you were gone and honestly, it seems better if Morty, Beth and Jerry don't know about all of this. I'm sure she's not into the idea of telling them, either."

"Right, I agree…" Squanchy paused, putting one paw to his chin as he thought about it. "You could manage a trip to the Plaagin Galaxy; they have chemicals to make medical sprays that can heal flesh wounds pretty well. You've seen Bird Person and I have use it dozens of times; it should work for her, too. Do you remember it?"

He nodded and suddenly a thought returned to his brain. The Plaagin System; Rick had completely forgotten about the need to go there to obtain for a remedy for Morty's sickness. Now he had even more of a reason to go.

"I'll do that," Rick bit his lip; this was the part he wasn't good at. "Listen, Squanchy, I–I–I…well, uh, you know, everything that happened…I…you. Well, I…"

But Squanchy raised a paw, halting him. Being an ally to Rick was a thankless job a lot of the time, and Squanchy had come to accept that. He knew deep down, Rick did truly appreciate him. That was all he needed, because although Rick was great at almost everything, he wasn't good at _everything_. Apologizing and thanking people were two things he struggles with. Squanchy also knew that Rick was going to have to do both of those things on his trip home, and he didn't want to force him to do them now.

"I know, Rick," he said. "Just do what you gotta do."

Rick smiled, or smirked, or something, and nodded.

Without another word, he opened a portal to planet Squanch and bid his friend farewell, and watched pensively while his ally stepped through and the portal slowly closed. Afterwards, he stood silently staring at the spot where the portal had once been.

For the first time in a long time, he would be with Summer alone for an extended period of time. Completely alone. The prospect was utterly terrifying; one he didn't want to face.

But the problem wasn't going to go away no matter how long he watched the ground. So it was with a heavy sigh that Rick forced himself to walk towards his ship, as slowly as he possibly could.

It wasn't slow enough as before he knew it, he found himself sitting in the driver's seat, closing the door behind him.

"Uh, ready to go home?" Rick asked.

He could have slapped himself. What a stupid fucking question that had been.

"Yeah," Summer mumbled, her gaze locked outside the passenger side window.

That one little word relieved a lot of tension he was carrying. He knew he had a far way to go in terms of getting back on Summer's good side, but at least she wasn't above speaking to him.

"Okay," Rick started the ship.

He guided the ship through takeoff slower than usual, careful not to make sudden movements or anything rash that would startle her. Had it been under other circumstances, he would be flooring it to get off world and the now six-hour trip home over with faster. That stop in the Plaagin System would tack on an additional two hours that he wasn't sure his sanity could handle.

He even considered offering to send her home through a portal just so they wouldn't have to spend the time together, but there were reasons Rick knew he couldn't do that.

One, if Beth or Jerry saw the shape Summer was currently in, they'd kick him out of their house before he could even get out of his ship. Not only was he the only one who could make the medicine to heal Summer's injuries more quickly than anyone else in the cosmos, but he couldn't handle that; hearing his daughter tell him that he had to go because he was a piece of shit who only hurt his own grandchildren, no matter how true it was. The thought alone refilled his flask every few hours.

Two, he wanted to keep an eye on her. He wanted to study her, to see how she handled herself. He knew she was freaked out by everything, and she had the right to be; it had all just happened. As heartless as Rick was, he knew this would take some time to get past, and he had to tell himself he needed to be okay with that. Summer wasn't like him, and he was actually grateful for that. He hoped neither of his grandchildren would ever become like him in the long run.

Three, if Summer had opted to go through a portal, he knew they'd never have the conversation they'd need to have on the way home. If he put it off now, he'd find every excuse to put it off for the rest of ever. And that could spark a repeat of this whole situation, possibly with a far worse outcome. Rick shivered at the thought.

The conversation they needed to have…how was he supposed to start it? He could berate her for even thinking running away was the answer to all of her problems, but she definitely knew that already. He couldn't just out and apologize to her, because he wasn't good at that sort of thing. So he bit his tongue and waited, staring at the stars and far-off galaxies in front of his ship while he tried to think of a good opening.

Twenty minutes of silence had passed; 20 wasted minutes of unbearable silence. Rick had always been the type of person who, if he had a problem, he could come right out and say something about it. Here he was finding himself struggling to even speak.

He glanced at her out of the corner of his eye every few minutes. She kept her eyes straightforward, but they seemed unfocused. She was lost in whatever thoughts she was having, and he wasn't sure whether or not he wanted to know.

At one point, he noticed her rubbing her arms up and down slightly, her legs curled up and shaking slightly.

"You cold?" he asked her.

She tensed briefly, like she forgot she was with someone.

"A little, I guess," she shrugged, not even looking at him.

 _Words. Well, more than one word, at least. That was a start._

Rick began shifting in his seat, shrugging off his lab coat, peeling it off of his arms and holding it out to her. She blinked at it a few times in front of her, torn between the option of taking it or passing.

That was when Rick decided he wasn't going to let this passive bullshit stand anymore. This wasn't Summer; not at all, and he didn't like it.

He wanted his granddaughter back: the one who wasn't scared of back talking at him when he was being an asshole. The one he'd spent the whole trip there remembering and respecting. The one who would go after what she wanted in life. The one who was actually ballsy (or stupid) enough to steal his portal gun and escape because she was unhappy.

He wanted to find that fire in her; the fire that had made him respect her, and he wanted to pour gasoline all over it.

He realized to find her, he'd have to treat her the way he always had. If he wanted that normal to come back, he had to be normal. Pity wasn't something Summer ever liked, not was it something he was good about offering, so he wouldn't waste his energy giving it to her. Wherever Summer was, buried underneath this loathing whiny girl in front of him, he'd have to force her out.

"Just take the damn coat, Summer," Rick sighed. "Y–y–you should know I'm not normally nice enough to offer sentimentality or anything like that."

She seemed surprised at his words, but then her face slowly began melting into a small, frustrated glare as she took the lab coat out of his hands and begrudgingly pushed her arms through the sleeves. Once she was covered up, she turned back and faced forward. Not out the window, not with her back to him. Forward.

 _Ah, sweet progress.  
_  
He had to keep pushing it; he had to be the one to start this conversation, because she clearly wasn't going to.

Summer, meanwhile, was gnashing her teeth silently and she squirmed her arms through Rick's too-big lab coat in her seat. She knew what this was: charity. Something didn't want or need.

In truth, she'd always wanted some form of special attention, and to any other person, this gesture might have seemed a step in the right direction. But Summer thought better; this was an, "I-feel-sorry-for-you" type deal. She knew her grandfather well enough to know he didn't really care for her; this act was probably some stupid attempt to get her to get over it all.

And it pissed her off to think that Rick thought that was all he needed to do to fix everything.

She idly wondered why she didn't ask him to portal her home when he started talking again.

"Alright, so, you wanna give me an explanation, Summer?" Rick took a deep breath.

Neither of them looked at each other, and Summer only scoffed in response. After everything she'd been through, he thought she owed him something? Granted, yes, she took his portal gun without his permission…but he was one of the ones who drove her to do that.

Why did he even come for her anyway? Her best guess led her to believe it was for selfish reasons. If Summer's mother knew what had happened, and she found out how badly Summer had been hurt throughout the whole ordeal, she'd probably realize just how dangerous the things Rick did – like space travel – actually were. There's no way Morty would be allowed to go with Rick anymore after that, and there was no way Rick would give up his favorite grandchild for her mistake.

"Summer, spill," Rick demanded.

She felt her anger slowly building, like the reality of everything that had happened was finally setting in. And how he believed that he was so above her, he demanded to know everything, probably so he could insult her.

"I don't owe you shit," Summer muttered, glaring out at space in front of them.

Rick felt his lip twitch; he was really going to have to push it to scale these dumb, emotional walls she was apparently was putting up. It was absurd; she was better than this. He knew she was, and he was going to show her that.

"What?" Rick asked. "Speak up. Don't mumble your answers, that shit's annoying and it accomplishes nothing almost 90% of the time."

"I said, I. Don't. Owe. You. Shit. Rick," Summer said slowly, directly, venomously; she pronounced every word carefully.

It was suddenly very silent in the ship, the only sounds coming from the humming of the engine as they zipped through space.

She was facing him now, fists balled and tears pooling in her eyes. She hated crying, and she especially hated the idea of crying in front of this asshole, but she couldn't help it. Every emotion was hitting her now: the guilt, the sadness, the anger, the hate, and everything else washing over her like waves on a beach in a hurricane.

It was completely overwhelming, and she was shaking slightly because of it. She hoped Rick's lab coat was hiding the vibrations of her chest and she fought with everything in her to keep herself from breaking out into hysterics.

Rick's sigh broke the silence. He reached over to the dashboard, typed in a few numbers and flipped a few switches. He then scooted his seat back and the auto pilot light turned on, indicating the ship was steering itself to whatever coordinates he punched in. He turned to face her, prepping himself.

They made eye contact for the first time for the first time that day, and it felt like he'd been punched in the stomach when he could see just how torn up she really was; the tears in her eyes and bruises on her face.

But he knew he had work to do, and there was literally no excuse left to put it off anymore.

So he decided to take a sledgehammer to those walls, because climbing them wasn't going to get the job done.

"I don't think I need to remind you that you stole _my_ portal gun," Rick said carefully, gauging the her reaction. "That's grounds enough, Summer. I deserve to know why, in your own words, you did that. Help me understand what part of you thought that it was a good idea, because clearly what happened was not what you expected to happen."

"Spoken like an asshole who's trying to sound like he cares," Summer snapped.

"I do care, Summer. That's why I'm–"

He was instantly cut off by a sudden outburst of yelling.

"No, you don't!" she exclaimed, her nostrils flared and her teeth gritted. "You don't care, you never have! None of you ever have! Don't even think you can convince me of otherwise; you might be the smartest being in existence, Grandpa Rick, but you don't know the first thing about human emotions. When it comes to understanding feelings, you're dumber than Morty in a math test when he's sitting next to that sophomore, Jessica.

"And because you're so smart, I'm surprised you yourself can't figure out the reason I took your stupid portal gun and left! It's pretty obvious, but I guess you just want to hear me say why so you can have some stupid, 'I told you so' moment. Maybe give me a speech on how I'm a dumb, over-emotional teenager like you always do! Or even use your default and blame it all on my stupid boobs.

"Do you know what I really am, Grandpa Rick? I'm an argument that my parents keep repeating instead of just getting a fucking divorce. I'm a petty bitch of a sister to my younger brother, who isn't even my real little brother just like you're not even my real grandpa. And, on top of all of that, I'm _nothing_ to you, because you don't take me anywhere or do anything to show me otherwise.

"Why did you even come for me anyways? To save your own ass incase my mom found out? To make sure you could keep favoring Morty and making him feel special and continue to ignore my existence while the two of you go off and do things I wish I could do if someone loved me enough to give me the chance?

"That's the real reason why, Grandpa Rick; because you and everyone else in my life don't even value me. That's not me wanting to be popular; that's me being denied love that I don't just want, but that I _need_. I don't matter, and I thought maybe I could find someone out there who could convince me of otherwise.

"So go ahead; tell me I was being a brat for taking your portal gun and that I'm an idiot. Tell me you don't give two shits about me and that it would have been better if the other Rick would have finished me off before you got there so that you'd have one less pain in your ass to deal with. But know this; you're preaching to a choir, because I already fucking know those things. You more than anyone have taught me those things."

She fell back into the seat after she was done speaking, not even realizing she had been leaning forward. She huffed and wiped the tears that were streaming down her face with her arms. A part of her felt good to have gotten all of that out, but the majority of her felt utterly broken at the truth of it all. More than ever, she wished YX-43 Rick had actually killed her.

Rick watched her with a pensive look on his face. On one hand, he knew the outburst she'd had building up inside was going to be pretty brutal, but he didn't expect her to lay it all out the way she had. And he knew no response he could give her in the moment would settle her right away.

The problem before him wasn't one he could solve in a simple step. This was going to take time and energy to resolve. He would be working on this for a while, and he knew that if he wanted it to get better, he had to show her he truly cared, which he wasn't good at. But it was time to start getting better at it, for his granddaughter's sake.

It was time to start breaking that wall down…

"Do you want a tissue?" was the first thing that came out of his mouth.

 _…Damn, okay. Nice job._

He really wasn't good at this.

When she shook her head in a negative, and he ignored her. Reaching in the backseat, he grabbed the box he kept back there and offered it to her anyway. She huffed and pulled three out of the box despite denying them previously.

Rick mused to himself again, trying to think of what the best approach would be to start his own speech.

What bothered him the most in her rant was how she had admitted she wished she had died; that she had thought that sick fucker of a Rick killing her would have been better for everyone involved. It was clear she didn't know much about the Rick she had been with other than that he was a sadistic fuck. And part of fixing this problem was going to have to be her learning the truth about who YX-43 Rick was.

"Look, Summer," he took a breath, praying to a God he didn't believe in that he could get this right. "I'm not good at this sort of thing; you yourself just pointed that out about, what, six times? So you know I'm a douche and maybe that will help you understand what I'm going to try to say, but I need one favor from you before I try; I need you to tell me what you knew about that Rick."

She held a tissue to her hide half of her face and looked down, eyes red-rimmed and pupils slightly dilated at the thought of the man who had almost tortured her to death.

"All I know is that, aside from being a major fucking psycho, the Summer and Morty in his reality died and he was sent to that place by the bunch of you's who made a council or whatever."

"Alright," Rick nodded, then paused again.

He figured he'd have to handle this the way he handled every situation and experiment he'd ever encountered: he'd break down the problem and solve it step by step.

"Look, I have a lot to say, Summer," Rick said. "I know you might not want to listen to me after all of this, but I think you should. I'm not going to insult you or anything like that, because you don't deserve that. And that's not pity; you know I don't pity anyone. But before I can say anything else, I think you need to know the backstory for YX-43 Rick; it might help you think of me less as a piece of shit.

"The Rick from dimension YX-43 didn't lie to you; his grandkids were dead and the Council of Ricks did banish him to Zenoa. But he also didn't tell you that whole story. Summer, that Rick killed his own grandkids."

It made sense to Summer, and it really didn't surprise her to learn this. Despite herself, she gasped anyway.

"Granted, I don't know all that much about it…" Rick sighed. "When it all happened, the Council of Ricks sent out some huge case brief file folder bullshit with all the specifics on what that Rick had done to every single Rick in existence, and how the Council had handled the whole thing.

"When I got that file, I started reading it out of curiosity on what the Council considered to be acts so bad, they felt the need to send out a fucking novel to every Rick in every plain of conceivable reality. Looking back at it now, it seems like it was more of a threat to anything; if any Rick every stepped that far out of line, the Council would find him and take serious action. But that's beside the point.

"Like I said, I started reading that file, but I never finished it. Do you know why, Summer? It's because that shit was too sick even for _me_ to want to know, and I almost feel bad for the Ricks who had to compile all of that data together. The gist of it is, that Rick tortured his own family to death. He did some really fucked up stuff, Summer; things I'd never even consider no matter what. The things you went through with him were only a fraction of what that piece of shit did to his Summer and Morty and Beth…"

He shivered a little at the thought of his own daughter going through something similar. But he pressed on.

"And he managed to hide it all from the Council for years. He'd fucking attend regular meetings at the Citadel of Ricks and pretend like everything was fine. He'd find excuses for why he'd never bring his Morty there. He was a pro.

"It wasn't until his Morty died from him using..." Rick cleared his throat. "From him performing…an experiment that it all fell apart for him. I don't know exactly how she did it, but the Summer of YX-43 found out about the Council of Ricks, and she thought they could help. According to that file, she managed to get his portal gun, and she actually made it there.

"That Summer tried to tell the Council members, and every Rick she met in the Citadel, what was going on in her dimension. But none of them really listened to her right away; they wrote her off, because she was a Summer. I guess it's just a common trait among us Ricks to underestimate our granddaughters.

"Eventually, one of the Ricks sent her back home, totally uninterested. And when her Rick found out what she had done…Well, I skipped reading that part. It was really _intense,_ I guess is the best way to describe it. Point is, that was the end of that Summer.

"Even though they ignored her at first, the Council of _dicks_ decided they'd bother and go check in on YX-43 Rick, because he hadn't checked in with them in a while, and the more they thought about it, the more it seemed weird a Summer would go through so much trouble to act crazy in the Citadel.

"That was how they found out about his…activities. They found out he'd been planning a dimension-hopping murder spree; he wanted to target other Mortys and Summers and Beths because apparently that's how he got his shits and giggles. It was sick, but the Council caught him and put him on trial and banished him to Zenoa.

"See, they're too stupid to recognize when they need to put a Rick down, because there are some out there that definitely need to be. But they're so against killing a Rick…it's dumb. But yeah, that's how he ended up there, portal gun-less. And the Council always had people monitoring him there, just incase he tried to get off-world.

"There are a lot of sadistic Ricks in the infinite timelines, but that one was one of the worst ones known to Rick-kind. But it was because of his Summer that he was caught, and she saved countless other Mortys, Summers and Beths. That's pretty respectable."

At one point through Rick's story, Summer had turned her gaze downward, unable to look at the exact same face of a murderer.

Her lip was trembling as the gravity of the situation she had been in slowly seeped into her brain. The Rick who had saved her life and then tried to end it was far more insane that she could have ever guessed. When he had told her his grandchildren were dead, she assumed it was a horrible accident. Not that he used to torture his own grandchildren to death for fun.

And the fact she had almost given him an escape; the fact that had he gotten away with the portal gun she'd brought there...it was almost too much.

For whatever reason, she found herself afraid of him all over again.

"The Council's probably gonna give me a load of shit for killing him when they find it out," Rick thought out loud.

Summer started a bit; Rick didn't miss the slight twitch. He raised an eyebrow to her while she kept her eyes downcast.

"You killed him?" she asked slowly.

"Of course I killed him," Rick said, almost shocked she even assumed he wouldn't have. "You think I was gonna let that piece of shit live after what he had done to you?"

She winced again, and new tears streamed silently down her face as she chewed her lip, debating on whether or not she should say what was on her mind. Rick squared his shoulders and braced himself; he knew what was coming.

And then, it came, in an almost inaudible whisper.

"You don't care about me, Grandpa Rick."

It was odd to Rick that while he knew her statement had been coming, it still stung him. She'd already accused him of the same thing earlier, but this tiny, broken whisper hurt worst than the screaming did. In some weird, unknown part of his chest, he felt a uncomfortable pang. And he hated it; he wanted that gnawing feeling that had slowly been spreading throughout his chest for hours to go away.

The ship was completely silent as Summer's words hung in the air. Rick flexed his fingers and remained perfectly still, hoping somehow, the silence could give him some inspiration.

He pursed his lips, took a deep breath through his nose and exhaled slowly.

"Summer, you're too smart to be this dumb," was what came out of his mouth.

Granted, it didn't sound all that nice, but it did what he wanted it to do; she slowly rose her head and met his gaze. Her eyes were sparkling with tears and confusion.

"What?" she could barely force herself to speak.

"Summer, if I _didn't_ care, I wouldn't have come all the way out here to find you and bring you home," Rick clarified.

"You didn't come for me," Summer challenged. "You came so my mom would let you bring Morty on more adventures."

"I never said that; you made that up. What if I told you your mom and dad have no idea where you went, actually?"

Summer opened her mouth to reply, but nothing came out. In fact, nothing she could say came to mind. And Rick took full advantage of her silence.

"Your parents don't know you left, so you can cross that theory off of your list," Rick said. "And don't jump from that ship to the, 'he came to get his portal gun back' one either. Or anything like that. I came to get _you_ , Summer. I know I'm shit at showing it sometimes and I know this might be hard to believe, but I actually do give a fuck about my grandchildren."

He was looking directly at her as he spoke every word, and it made Summer feel odd.

Where all of this was coming from, she didn't know. She knew he was capable of being like this, so that wasn't where the confusion came in. In the two years Rick had lived in their home, she'd seen this genuine side come out a few times, but it was extremely rare. Rare as in, when he thought no one could see him or he thought no one was paying attention.

Being as invisible as she was most of the time, Rick never really noticed just how much attention she paid to those around her. It was probably why she could understand how unhappy her parents were together, despite how it always seemed to shock Morty whenever he noticed them fighting. But that invisibility, it was one of her superpowers; it gave her a window to see Rick in those sincere yet hidden moments.

Now here he was, openly having one of them, and it was directed at her; something she didn't think would have ever happened.

She'd wanted this for a long time; attention from her grandfather when he gave it all to her younger brother. Now, she was getting it, and yet, it didn't feel as satisfying as she'd wanted it to be; maybe because it wasn't enough for her. Words were powerful things, but at the end of the day, actions spoke louder.

"You care about Morty, I know that much," she sighed. "But you've never really given me much of a reason to believe that I'm important too, Grandpa Rick."

Rick frowned deeply, and again, that weird feeling was spreading through his chest again. What was this? It was practically driving him mad.

"You never take me on adventures or to do anything special like you always do with him," she continued. "It can't just be because I'm a girl, Rick. It has to be because you don't want me around."

"That isn't it at all!" he snapped quickly, that off-anxiety spreading through his chest more rapidly. "There is a reason, Summer. A real, legitimate reason that I don't bring you around so much..."

"What is it?" she pressed, a sudden surge of something in her voice; hope, perhaps?

"It's…complicated," he responded dumbly.

An empty heaviness was weighing him down on the inside.

"Why don't you want to tell me?"

It felt like it was getting harder to breathe.

"I'm not as stupid as you think I am, Grandpa Rick."

His lip was trembling; when was the last time he'd had a drink?

"Whatever it is, I can handle it."

He felt his right eye twitch; seriously, what the fuck was this?

"If you want me to believe you, you owe me as much."

It was getting worse and worse every time she spoke.

"Please."

There were the tears again, falling down her cheeks as her eyes screamed for answers and clarification. He could see more than anything, she wanted to believe him, and the one thing that was holding him back was the fear of how she would accept the answer she didn't know that she didn't truly want.

"Please just try to let me understand."

A connection was made in his brain suddenly as he was able to identify the emotion that was tearing him up internally.

Guilt; something he's felt less than a handful of times in his lifetime. And here it was, murdering him.

The guilt for holding back the truth from her; guilt from driving her away in the first place; guilt for what he decided he was going to tell her.

He needed a drink so fucking badly.

"Let me ask you a question," he began slowly, closing his eyes. "Do you remember when you and your parents looked at your alternate lives?"

She exhaled, clearly not expecting this turn in the conversation, but affirmed him anyway.

"Yes."

"Alright," he nodded, opening his eyes and pointed to the glove box on the dashboard in front of her. "Open that up and take out what's in it. Give it to me."

More confused then ever, she panicked slightly. This was going far better than she hoped, and she didn't want him to retrieve his flask and drive away his clear thought process to treat her like shit again. Not when they were making this much progress…

"Grandpa, I really don't think you should drink right n–"

"There's no alcohol in there and my flash is back in the garage," he cut her off. "There's only one thing in there, Summer. Hand it to me."

She didn't hesitate, then. She unlatched the small door on the glove box and it fell open, revealing that it was indeed empty, save for one folded piece of paper inside of it. She slowly reached in slowly, not sure what she was expecting.

It looked normal enough; just a small, blank rectangle piece of paper. She stared at the paper intensely, wanting to find a message in invisible ink or something, _anything_ , to help her understand the point Rick was trying to make.

When he realized she wasn't going to give it to him right away, he sighed again, preparing for whatever reaction she could have.

"Turn it over," he instructed.

She did.

"Replacement Morty…?" she read aloud, bringing the small ticket closer to her face as if she could maybe find a better explanation.

He gave her a few moments to process what it meant, and her face paled within seconds. Her eyes grew wide, too.

He held his hand out for the coupon, and she shakily passed it over to him, looking up at him with fearful eyes. He briefly looked down to the disgusting piece of paper in his hands, then back up to her.

"This is exactly what you think it is, Summer," Rick stated carefully. "In any event, if I'm to lose your brother, the Council of Me's will give me another one. This entitles me to a free Morty if mine is ever to die."

All she could do was stare at him in horror. She knew that Rick and Morty sometimes ran into danger on their trips, but the thought of one of them never actually returning frightened her. And the fact that her brother could simply be replaced by a copy were that unthinkable thing to happen…

Well, it already had happened. But the Rick and Morty she knew now were closer to her than her own had been.

Rick could see the question in her eyes that she was too afraid to ask in fear of an answer.

"I've never had to replace your brother," he told her. "Morty and I are both from dimension C-137. He's my original Morty, and I'd like to keep things the way they are."

That seemed to take some of the sting out, and her eyes seemed to return to a less alarmed size. But she still needed more; she was in too much shock to put the pieces together.

"Replacement Morty vouchers exist," he began. "They're given to Ricks by the council incase they're ever needed. I got this one when I was framed by that evil Rick a few months ago; they gave it to me when I was able to prove that I was innocent. There are countless Mortys available should any Rick ever need one, whether it be that their Rick died or he just never came into the picture, or whatever. There are infinite possibilities.

"Back to what I asked you earlier, though, about the infinite timelines? I'm sure you had trouble finding realities where you even existed, right?"

She nodded slowly.

"See, I know that because I've looked through the other timelines as well. When Morty and I had to bail on C-137, it took me quite some time to find a reality where you existed at all, let alone Rick and Morty-less. Longer than I care to admit, but the point is…you're a rarity, Summer. In a majority of the timelines for countless reasons, you don't exist.

"Let me be clear right now; I don't want to replace your brother. Not now, not ever; it's a possibility that's always in the back of my mind, and I do what I can to keep him safe anywhere and everywhere we go together. But that's the key difference between you two.

"Universe forbid I ever fail to keep Morty alive, I can get him back. In some form, I can get your brother back. But if anything were to ever happen to you, Summer… there's not much of anything that I could do.

"I know I've taught you and Morty that there are infinite timelines and dimensions and possibilities, and in some way, if I got lucky, I'm sure I could find another Summer somewhere…but I'm just one person, Summer. No matter what I'm capable of, it would be impossible for me to search every single part of infinity.

"That's why I try not to bring you along for the more dangerous stuff. I'm not being a dick on purpose, and I'm not trying to ignore you constantly. And on top of that, I'm sure you're capable of handling yourself; you've proven to be more competent than your brother on a handful of occasions. But I'm not a betting man; I like to shoot straight, and gambling with your life isn't something I want to do on a regular basis.

"From here on out, I promise you I'll do my best to try to be more considerate. You and I both know there will be times when I fail miserably, because even I can fuck up sometimes. But know it's nothing personal; it's actually me being considerate.

"I'm not saying I'm gonna bring you everywhere, either. I told you the reason why I don't, and I expect you to understand it really is for the best that you avoid most of the places I go to with your brother. But I'll make time for you, too. I'll take you on solo missions and we'll have fun without your brother tagging along every now and then.

"And don't ever think I don't care about you, Summer. I'm shit at caring about people, but I can do it, and _you_ , your brother and your mother are the three most important people in my life. I'd do anything for you guys, including traveling across the galaxy to find you and save your ass from a more fucked up version of me any day.

"I know I've probably got to do a lot more to earn your forgiveness, and as petty and annoying as I think that is, I'll do it. You are right in saying I owe you some shit. I'll work on that."

Silence filled the ship for some amount of time after Rick stopped talking, and it was incredibly uncomfortable for Rick. He wasn't one for speeches and opening up, and he certainly didn't expect silence to be the response.

Summer's face was blank as she absorbed everything Rick had said to her. At first she didn't believe it had even happened; she waited to wake up and find herself in her own bed at home, and to be stuck back in the same situation as she was before she had left. She even tried biting the inside of her cheek to force herself awake, but all she accomplished was filling her mouth with pain and the taste of blood as she slowly realized it was all too real.

The next phase she went though was processing all of his words. The first step was accepting the speech happened. The second was accepting that there was actual truth behind them.

She searched his face for any sings that he was lying to her, but she never found any. Her grandfather wasn't a liar unless he was trying to convince Beth whatever he was doing was perfectly safe for Morty. Other than that, he was bluntly honest all the time, not caring who the truth hurt. And he had nothing to gain from lying to her there, in that moment.

The last phase threw them both off guard. She didn't remember when it happened, but next thing she knew, she leaned over and threw her arms around Rick.

He stiffened from the sudden, unexpected contact and display of sentiment, but adjusted quickly and wrapped his arms around her as well, feeling her weak frame tremble against him.

"I'm sorry," she chanted over and over in a mantra. "I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry."

"I am too," he told her.

They stayed like that for a while before she finally let go, and leaned back into her seat, and he into his. She then reached her hand out for the Morty voucher, and he slowly handed it back to her, wary of what she could do.

She held it in one hand and looked down at it again, while she wiped the remained of her tears onto the sleeve of Rick's lab coat. It felt like it weighed a thousand pounds in her hands.

"Promise me that you'll never have to use this," she breathed.

Rick had already promised himself that very same thing the moment he'd even gotten the damn thing from the council. His Morty was not replaceable, because no Morty could ever compare.

But Rick wasn't naïve, either. He knew anything could happen in the multiverse, and as much as he was against it, he knew there was always a possibility that he may have to use it, if anything just to make sure Beth had her child.

Summer herself already knew it was a promise he couldn't ever truly make, but for whatever reason, she needed to hear him say it. It would make her feel better.

"I promise, Summer," Rick said.

She breathed a sigh of relief and put the ticket back in the glove box, shoving it closed and turning her attention to the vastness of space in her view out of the front windshield.

While she slowly sunk back into the passenger seat, a wave of pain and soreness spread across her torso and other parts of her body. The adrenaline finally wearing off, she realized just how hurt she still was. She tried stretching her arms out slowly in front of her to dull the pain, but it only made it worse.

She groaned and gnashed her teeth together, trying to mask the discomfort.

"We're gonna make a stop in the Plaagin System in a few minutes," Rick said, checking what Summer had called his "space GPS" once. "We gotta get some stuff for your brother; little bastard caught a space cold last night. And we'll be able to get some meds that will fix you up, too.

"I mean, I still owe you. You saved my ass…what is it, three times now? Gazorpazorp, Tiny Dick and the purge world? I'm counting this trip as one off of my three strikes of debt."

Her eyes suddenly lit up, the prospect of going somewhere new with her grandfather dawned upon her. Rick saw the sudden change in her attitude and smirked to himself.

"There's this one planet in this salaxy that has this mega arcade…it's pretty sick," Rick added. "I mean, nowhere near as fan-fucking-tastic as Blips and Chitz, and we'll go there sometime if you want, but it's pretty damn close. This one has Roy 3: Mike. We'll check that out after we get you patched up. Your brother can stay sick for a little while longer after not listening to me about wearing a jacket."

"I'm down, let's go," Summer could barely keep her voice leveled to mask the sheer excitement.

They had a long way to go and Summer was going to have to readjust, but for now, this was a good start; a few good steps in the right direction. Finally, Summer felt like she actually mattered for once. She was the happiest she had been in she couldn't even recall how long.

She had no idea that beside her, Rick felt the exact same way.


End file.
